NASA enhances hurricane preparedness and response through advanced satellite technology, data sharing, and innovative tools like flood mapping, landslide assessment, and storm tracking, supporting communities and improving forecasting accuracy.
NASA is set to launch its TROPICS mission, a constellation of small, storm-monitoring satellites, on May 7 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The mission aims to boost our understanding and ability to monitor Earth’s tropical storms by placing paired CubeSats at different orbital planes. The humidity, wind, and temperature readings offered by TROPICS are expected to fill in the data voids that currently exist in forecasting and storm monitoring, ultimately saving human life by increasing the amount of advance notice people have in the lead up to catastrophe as well as the accuracy of weather warnings.