TROPICS03: Orbital Antenna Temperatures for Tropical Cyclone Analysis

The TROPICS Pathfinder satellite provides high-temporal-resolution, all-weather observations from a sun-synchronous orbit. Its Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) captures temperature profiles near 118.75 GHz, water vapor profiles near 183 GHz, and precipitation and cloud ice data at 90 GHz and 205 GHz. Each data granule contains approximately 2880 scans across 81 spots, representing a full orbit.

Use Cases

• Analyzing 3D temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen line
• Modeling water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183-GHz absorption line
• Studying precipitation horizontal structure by combining 90 GHz imagery with higher-resolution water vapor channels
• Investigating cloud ice particle distribution using the 205 GHz channel sensitivity

Strengths

• Data is produced from a dedicated satellite constellation (six identical Space Vehicles) designed for high-temporal-resolution observation
• Each orbital granule provides a structured dataset with approximately 2880 scans across 81 spots
• The passive microwave spectrometer payload enables nearly all-weather observation capability

Limitations

• Column names and specific data schema are not provided in the available metadata
• Dataset size and exact row counts are unspecified across all sources
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail

Provenance

Source

NASA GES_DISC, from the TROPICS Pathfinder satellite

Collection Method

Collected by the TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) payload on a 3U small satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit

Time Range

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Freshness

2026-04-09 21:34:29.129494

Geography

Global, with a focus on tropical regions for cyclone observation