On Monday, NASA launched a pair of small satellites from a New Zealand base as part of a cyclone-monitoring initiative that could significantly enhance weather forecasting for devastating storms.
The new satellites, launched via a rocket manufactured by US-based firm Rocket Lab, are capable of traversing hurricanes or typhoons every hour, a vast improvement over current satellites that can only do so every six hours.
NASA scientist Will McCarty revealed that researchers will now be able to observe the hourly evolution of storms through the TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) mission.
“We still need the large satellites,” he added.
“What we get from this is the ability to add more information to the flagship satellites that we already have.”
