14:28 GMT
Share
TEMPEST-D stands for “Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems – Demonstration” and is a technology demonstration mission for a future cubesat constellation to provide the first ever temporal observations of cloud and precipitation processes and their evolution in time on a global scale. A mm-wave radiometer operating from 89 to 182 GHz is on board the TEMPEST-D. Knowing the temporal evolution of clouds from the moment it starts raining would allow us to improve our understanding on cloud processes and climate models. The complete TEMPEST mission will consist of several cubesats some minutes apart enabling rapid revisits of the same storm. This is a great scientific project led by MTTS adcom member Steve Reising of Colorado State University, in partnership with JPL and Blue Canyon Technologies and is sponsored by NASA. TEMPEST-D is operational from July 2018. More info at https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/t/tempest-d.