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HomeTech/ScienceNASA's TEMPEST-D satellite takes a look inside Hurricane Dorian

NASA’s TEMPEST-D satellite takes a look inside Hurricane Dorian

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPasadena, CA – A new view of Hurricane Dorian shows the layers of the storm, as seen by an experimental NASA weather satellite that’s the size of a cereal box. TEMPEST-D reveals rain bands in four layers of the storm as Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida on September 3rd, 2019.

The multiple vertical layers show where the strongest convective “storms” within the hurricane are pushing high into the atmosphere, with pink, red and yellow corresponding to the areas of heaviest rainfall.

Hurricane Dorian off the coast of Florida, as seen by the small satellite TEMPEST-D at 2 a.m. EDT on Sep. 3, 2019 (11 p.m PDT on Sept. 2, 2019). The layers in the animation reveal slices of the hurricane from four depths, taken at different radio wavelengths. The vertical view of Dorian highlights where the storm is strongest in the atmosphere. The colors in the animation show the heavy rainfall and moisture inside the storm. The least-intense areas of rainfall are shown in green, while the most intense are yellow, red and pink. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Hurricane Dorian off the coast of Florida, as seen by the small satellite TEMPEST-D at 2 a.m. EDT on Sep. 3, 2019 (11 p.m PDT on Sept. 2, 2019). The layers in the animation reveal slices of the hurricane from four depths, taken at different radio wavelengths. The vertical view of Dorian highlights where the storm is strongest in the atmosphere. The colors in the animation show the heavy rainfall and moisture inside the storm. The least-intense areas of rainfall are shown in green, while the most intense are yellow, red and pink. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Known as a CubeSat, TEMPEST-D (Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Demonstration) uses a miniaturized version of a microwave radiometer – a radio wave instrument used to measure rain and moisture within the clouds.

If TEMPEST-D can successfully track storms like Dorian, the technology demonstration could lead to a train of small satellites that work together to track storms around the world.

CubeSats are much less expensive to produce than traditional satellites; in multiples they could improve our global storm coverage and forecasting data.

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, created this flood map depicting areas of the Bahamas that are likely flooded (shown by light blue pixels) as a result of Hurricane Dorian. (NASA)
The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, created this flood map depicting areas of the Bahamas that are likely flooded (shown by light blue pixels) as a result of Hurricane Dorian. (NASA)

TEMPEST-D is led by Colorado State University in Fort Collins and managed by JPL in partnership with Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The mission is sponsored by NASA’s Earth Ventures program and managed by the Earth Science Technology Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The radiometer instrument was built by JPL and employs high-frequency microwave amplifier technology developed by Northrop Grumman.

JPL is managed by Caltech in Pasadena for NASA.

More information about this mission is available here:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/tempest-d.php

For more NASA images of Hurricane Dorian, visit the NASA Disasters Program:

https://disasters.nasa.gov/

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