TROPICS03: Unified Resolution Brightness Temperatures

A constellation of five identical small satellites provides nearly all-weather, high-temporal-resolution observations of tropical cyclones. This dataset from the TROPICS03 satellite contains Level 2A geolocated brightness temperatures, where water vapor channel data has been converted to match the spatial resolution of temperature channels using the Backus-Gilbert technique. Each file represents an orbit's worth of data, containing approximately 2880 scans across 81 measurement spots.

Use Cases

• Retrieving atmospheric vertical temperature profiles based on unified-resolution brightness temperature data.
• Analyzing storm intensity and precipitation structure using high-temporal-resolution microwave observations.
• Studying three-dimensional humidity profiles from water vapor absorption line channels.
• Investigating cloud ice particle distribution using the 205 GHz channel sensitivity.
• Conducting nearly all-weather monitoring of tropical cyclones with a constellation of small satellites.

Strengths

• Data is from a validated Stage-1 product, indicating a level of quality assurance.
• Each data granule contains a structured orbit of approximately 2880 scans and 81 spots, providing consistent data volume.
• The constellation design of five identical satellites enables high temporal resolution observations.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data schema are not provided in the metadata.
• The dataset's size and row count are unspecified across all sources.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' or 'None'.

Provenance

Source

TROPICS03 satellite, part of the TROPICS mission constellation.

Collection Method

Data collected by the TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) passive microwave spectrometer and processed to Level 2A.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:34:03.038776

Geography

Global, with focus on tropical cyclone regions.