TROPICS06: Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimates from CubeSat Constellation

The TROPICS constellation of five identical CubeSats provides nearly all-weather observations of tropical cyclones using a passive microwave spectrometer. Its Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimate algorithm calculates Minimum Sea Level Pressure and Maximum Sustained Winds from brightness temperature perturbations in specific microwave channels. This validated data release starts in June 2023 for the constellation and August 2021 for the Pathfinder satellite.

Use Cases

• Estimating tropical cyclone intensity based on microwave brightness temperature perturbations from channels near 118.75 GHz and 183 GHz.
• Analyzing storm structure using observations of three-dimensional temperature, humidity, cloud ice, and precipitation.
• Tracking changes in Minimum Sea Level Pressure and Maximum Sustained Winds over time for individual storm events.
• Comparing intensity estimates derived from a constellation of small satellites with traditional satellite or model data.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a constellation of five identical CubeSats, providing high temporal resolution observations.
• Algorithm uses validated, specific microwave channels (Ch. 1, 6, 7) and ancillary data from best track files and the ARCHER algorithm.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are unknown across all sources, limiting detailed structural understanding.
• License is listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail, creating potential usage uncertainty.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC (NASA), University of Wisconsin/CIMSS

Collection Method

Data collected by the TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) payload on a constellation of CubeSats and processed by the TCIE algorithm.

Time Range

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

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:20:01.751655

Geography

Global, focused on tropical cyclone regions.