(CNN) A new mission designed to improve hurricane forecasting is ready to launch, ahead of the June 1 arrival of 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.
NASA’s mission includes a constellation of CubeSats called TROPICS, or Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with the Constellation of Smallsats.
The first two CubeSats are expected to lift off from Māhia, New Zealand, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket during a two-hour window that opens at 9 pm ET on Sunday.
The launch of this first mission, dubbed “Rocket Like a Hurricane,” will be live streamed NASA website and The Rocket Lab website.
Two additional CubeSats, nicknamed “Coming to a Storm Near You,” will be launched from the same location later this month.
Together, the four satellites, each weighing 12 pounds and about the size of a loaf of bread, will observe tropical storms from low-Earth orbit.
The TROPICS satellite will be launched from New Zealand.
Once they are all in orbit, the small satellites will form a constellation that makes more frequent observations than current weather monitoring satellites.
“The need for improved climate and weather data from space is acute and growing. Hurricanes and tropical cyclones have a devastating impact on lives and livelihoods, so we are very proud to be entrusted by NASA to launch the TROPICS missions will allow scientists and researchers to accurately predict hurricane strength and give people time to evacuate and make plans,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck in a statement. “With the 2023 hurricane season fast approaching, time is of the essence for these missions.”
Each CubeSat will orbit about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth and take hourly observations of tropical cyclones’ precipitation, temperature and humidity. Current satellites take similar data, but only about every six hours, making it difficult to gauge the intensity of storms.
More frequent data will help scientists understand the rapid changes that can occur within a storm, affecting its structure and stability, and help meteorologists improve their prediction and forecasting models.
Once in orbit, the CubeSats will work in concert as a constellation to provide rapidly updated microwave observations of storms.
During the 2020 Atlantic hurricane seasonthere were so many tropical storms and hurricanes that meteorologists ran out of names on a predetermined list and had to switch to the Greek alphabet — and then the The same thing happened again in 2021said Ben Kim, program executive at NASA’s Earth Science Division.
In 2022, three hurricanes hit the USbut Hurricane Ian alone caused more than $100 billion in damage and caused more than 100 deaths, Kim said.
“TROPICS aims to improve our scientific understanding by taking microwave observations that allow us to see the internal structure of the storm approximately every hour,” Kim said. “These observations will complement existing weather satellites and may ultimately be linked to a broader understanding of the entire Earth system.”
Data collected by TROPICS will be shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Joint Typhoon Warning Center, National Hurricane Center and other partners. The satellites will measure the water vapor found primarily in the troposphere, or the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, where most weather phenomena occur.s.
“The exciting thing about this is the ability to see inside storms, but it’s also the ability to see how storms change over short periods of time,” said Dr. Will McCarty, program scientist in NASA’s Earth Science Division.
