TROPICS Pathfinder: Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimates from CubeSat Constellation

The TROPICS mission uses a constellation of five identical CubeSats to provide nearly all-weather, high-temporal-resolution observations of tropical cyclones. Its algorithm estimates Minimum Sea Level Pressure and Maximum Sustained Winds by analyzing brightness temperatures from specific microwave channels near 118.75 GHz and 183 GHz. This validated data release began in August 2021 for the Pathfinder satellite and June 2023 for the full constellation.

Use Cases

• Estimating tropical cyclone intensity based on microwave brightness temperature perturbations.
• Analyzing storm structure using temperature and water vapor profiles from specific oxygen and water vapor absorption channels.
• Monitoring precipitation and cloud ice via imagery channels near 90 GHz and 205 GHz.
• Validating and improving tropical cyclone forecast models with high-temporal-resolution satellite data.
• Studying the relationship between minimum sea level pressure and maximum sustained winds in cyclones.

Strengths

• Data originates from a constellation of five identical CubeSats, providing multiple observation sources.
• The algorithm uses specific, validated microwave channels (Ch. 1, 6, 7) for intensity estimation.
• Provides nearly all-weather observations due to passive microwave spectrometer technology.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are not provided by any source.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' or 'None'.
• The last updated metadata date is provided for some entries but not all.

Provenance

Source

University of Wisconsin/CIMSS, GES_DISC

Collection Method

Passive microwave spectrometer payload on a constellation of five 3U CubeSats.

Time Range

August 2021 to present (Pathfinder from August 2021, constellation from June 2023)

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:20:57.913950

Geography

Global, focusing on tropical cyclone regions.