TROPICS: Atmospheric Temperature and Moisture Profiles from Satellite Constellation

TROPICS06 L2B Neural-network Atmospheric Vertical Temperature & Moisture Profiles V1.0 is a satellite-derived dataset from NASA's TROPICS mission. It provides vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and water vapor mixing ratio, retrieved using a neural network approach from microwave spectrometer data. The data is collected by a constellation of five small satellites, offering high temporal resolution observations over both land and ocean in all weather conditions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the three-dimensional thermodynamic structure of tropical cyclones based on retrieved temperature and humidity profiles.
• Studying storm intensity changes using high-temporal-resolution observations from a satellite constellation.
• Validating and improving numerical weather prediction models with all-weather atmospheric profile data.
• Investigating cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure using the 205 GHz and 90 GHz channel information.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from a dedicated constellation of five identical satellites, increasing observational frequency.
• Retrievals are performed in all weather conditions, including precipitation, over both land and ocean.
• Vertical profiles cover specific atmospheric layers: temperature from surface to 20 km and water vapor from surface to 10 km.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as specific column names, total row count, and dataset size are not provided in the available sources.
• License information is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and absent on others.
• The spatial resolution differs between retrieved variables (coarser for temperature, finer for moisture), which may complicate integrated analyses.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Passive microwave spectrometer measurements from the TROPICS satellite constellation, processed to Level-2B retrievals using a neural network approach.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-09 according to datagov entries.

Geography

Global, with a focus on tropical regions for cyclone observation.