NASA and the rocket lab are preparing to launch early Monday morning from Launch Complex 1 Pad B in Mahia, New Zealand, with the SmallSats (Tropics) satellite to make time-resolved observations of precipitation patterns and storm intensity. Tracking CubeSats in orbit.
TROPICS is a suite of four identical cubesats designed to monitor tropical cyclones. From low-Earth orbit, it makes more frequent observations than current weather-monitoring satellites. Both payloads, each carrying a pair of cubesats, will be launched on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
A second Rocket Lab launch with two additional CubeSats is scheduled for May 16, with exact launch times along with the date and time of the first launch.
Tropics will study tropical cyclones as part of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program. We need to increase understanding of the processes that drive rapid changes in storm structure and integrity. NASA plans to evenly distribute the CubeSats in two low-Earth orbit planes about 550 kilometers above Earth’s surface.
TROPICS provides roughly hourly observations of the storm’s precipitation, temperature, and humidity, compared to current satellites, approximately every six hours. Frequent data collection can help scientists improve weather forecasting models.
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