TROPICS07: Orbital Microwave Brightness Temperatures for Tropical Cyclones

The TROPICS07 dataset provides Level 1B brightness temperature measurements from a constellation of five small satellites. Each orbital granule contains approximately 2880 scans across 81 spots, capturing data from seven channels near 118.75 GHz for temperature profiles, three channels near 183 GHz for water vapor, and channels near 90 GHz and 205 GHz for precipitation and cloud ice. The mission aims to deliver high-temporal-resolution, nearly all-weather observations of storm structure.

Use Cases

• Analyzing three-dimensional temperature profiles based on seven channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line.
• Studying water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183-GHz water vapor absorption line.
• Investigating precipitation horizontal structure by combining imagery from a channel near 90 GHz with higher-resolution water vapor channels.
• Examining cloud-sized ice particle sensitivity using a single channel near 205 GHz.
• Conducting high-temporal-resolution science investigations of tropical cyclones using nearly all-weather observations.

Strengths

• Data is collected by a constellation of five identical satellites, providing multiple observation sources.
• Each orbital granule contains a high-resolution structure of approximately 2880 scans across 81 spots.
• The spectrometer payload is designed for specific, high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones.

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are unknown from the provided metadata.
• The dataset's license is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' or 'None' across platforms.
• The last updated date is reported only on two platforms, with others showing 'None'.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the TROPICS constellation's Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) payload.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:20:11.207922

Geography

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