TROPICS05: Orbital Microwave Brightness Temperatures for Storm Analysis

Five identical small satellites form the TROPICS constellation, each carrying a millimeter-wave sounder with 12 channels to measure atmospheric conditions. Each data granule contains approximately 2880 scans and 81 spots, representing a full orbit of observations. The data provides three-dimensional temperature and humidity profiles, cloud ice, and precipitation structure at high temporal resolution for studying tropical cyclones.

Use Cases

• Tracking storm intensity and structure evolution based on high-temporal-resolution temperature and humidity profiles.
• Validating and improving numerical weather prediction models using three-dimensional atmospheric observations.
• Analyzing cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure from the 90 GHz and 205 GHz spectrometer channels.
• Conducting constellation-based science investigations leveraging data from five identical space vehicles.

Strengths

• Data is collected by a dedicated constellation of five identical satellites, enabling frequent revisit times for high-temporal-resolution monitoring.
• The spectrometer payload provides 12 specific channels targeting oxygen (118.75 GHz), water vapor (183 GHz), precipitation (90 GHz), and cloud ice (205 GHz) for multi-parameter analysis.
• Granule structure is explicitly defined, with each file containing data for a full orbit (81 spots, ~2880 scans).

Limitations

• Column names and specific data variables are not listed in the available metadata, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• Conflicting license information is present, with one source specifying 'other-license-specified' and another showing 'None'.
• Key metadata such as data volume (size/rows) and precise authorship are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the TROPICS constellation of five small satellites, each hosting a TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS).

Freshness

2026-04-09 (from datagov platform)

Geography

Global, with a focus on tropical cyclone regions.