NASA and Rocket Lab launched two of the agency’s CubeSats on Sunday to study tropical cyclones with greater frequency than existing satellites, according to an agency announcement. The CubeSats were launched on an Electron Rocket from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex in New Zealand at 9pm EDT on Sunday—or 1pm NZST on Monday. The launch was part of the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats—or TROPICS—which is “a constellation of four identical CubeSats to observe tropical cyclones in a unique, inclined low Earth orbit over Earth’s tropics.” NASA noted this orbit enables the CubeSats to travel over a storm approximately every hour, while current weather tracking satellites would travel over a storm once every six hours. “data will provide information to models that help us determine how a storm is changing over time, which in turn helps to improve forecasts from our partners like the National Hurricane Center and Joint Typhoon Warning Center.”
