In my last article, I noted that NASA is planning on launching constellations of small satellites for a variety of projects that involve studying the Earth. Well I can now rejoice because they are launching eight small satellites next month in an effort to improve improve wind measurements inside hurricanes. Being from Florida, hurricanes are always a constant worry especially during this time of the season so I'm glad to see NASA working on this.
According to GCN.com, The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) constellation will attempt to alleviate two of the current challenges with measuring wind speed inside hurricanes: interference with rain and the time it takes to collect measurements. This will allow researchers to understand the inside of the hurricane. The inability to see inside the hurricane will severely limit us in the future if it isn't addressed. Small satellites are proving to be a valuable tool to address this and other matters.
The goal of this project is to use satellites with wavelengths that will have better resistance to environmental interference such as raindrops. This will allow data to be processed more efficiently in order to make prediction models accurate. The larger satellites took around 3 days to fully record the full Earth data. Now these eight CYGNASS satellites can record numerous measurements in seconds.
The CYGNSS is the first complete orbital mission competitively selected by NASA's Earth Venture program, which focuses on low-cost, rapidly developed, science driven missions to enhance Earth Science understanding. The CYGNSS is scheduled to be sent into Orbit on Dec. 12.
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