Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Technology Demonstration(TEMPEST-D) 6U CubeSat Mission: Early Results and Potential for Atmospheric Science

Global observations of clouds and precipitation are essential to improve monitoring and prediction of hurricanes, tropical cyclones and severe storms with substantial impacts on human life and property. To understand cloud and precipitation processes that lead to rain, snow, sleet and hail in a variety of climate environments, rapid revisit observations on a global basis are necessary. To this end, geostationary satellites have substantially improved weather prediction by providing visible and infrared measurements with temporal resolution on the order of a few minutes. However, to improve understanding of the rapid and dynamic evolution of deep convection and the water vapor that fuels them, we require fine time-resolution millimeter-wave radiometric observations capable of penetrating into the storm to where the microphysical processes leading to precipitation occur.