After an unintended four-month hiatus publishing new work on the Drew Ex Machina website, I figured it was time to catch up on what I’ve been up to these past few months. In my last post a few days ago, I shared the recent episode of the Failure to Launch Podcast where Quinn Madsen and crew had me on as a guest to talk about the first Moon race between the United States and the old Soviet Union during the 1958 to 1960 time frame (see “Failure to Launch: The First Moon Race 1958-60”).
While the podcast was a great change of pace for me, much of my time over the last few months has been spent working in my role as the Chief Scientist for the Boston-based Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) and our partner, the Montreal-based Canada Weather Analytics (CWA). Our two companies are currently developing the Orbital Weather Warning System (OWWS) which will consist of a constellation of 6U CubeSat pairs that will provide high-resolution, stereo views of the weather from orbit. This unique stereographic imagery will be used to provide accurate measurements of cloud altitudes and the winds in 3D including unique data on vertical winds – important inputs to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting models (see “The Hurricane Hunter Satellites”). In addition, these data will provide vital inputs into a Carnot Engine-based model developed by our science team and its collaborators which will allow the characterization of the strength of intense hurricanes and other tropical cyclones more accurately than any other satellite-based method currently in use or under development (see “Using the Carnot Engine Model to Characterize Hurricanes from Orbit”).
A schematic representation of a pair of OWWS satellites making 3D observations of a hurricane from orbit. (TWA)
So, while I haven’t published much recently on the Drew Ex Machina website, I have been publishing a number of new blog posts for the TWA website, in addition to my other duties as Chief Scientist. I figured I would share some of this work with my readers in this forum:
Wind data provided by satellites, such as ESA’s successful Aeolus mission, have proven to make much needed improvements in the forecasting of hurricanes and other tropical cyclones. This is especially true in regions far from the reach of NOAA’s unique fleet of Hurricane Hunter aircraft such as where Atlantic hurricanes form off the coast of Africa and especially in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Although Aeolus has recently ended its mission, the Aeolus-2 constellation has been approved for development by ESA with its first launch expected as early as 2029. Stereographic imagery satellites from the OWWS will provide 3D wind data (as opposed to the 1D wind profiles returned by Aeolus) along with cloud altitude measurements and high-resolution cloud imagery as early as late-2024. The expectation of providing orders of magnitude more satellite wind measurements to improve mesoscale weather model forecasts as well as those of tropical cyclones. This TWA blog post goes into a peer-reviewed assessment of how the Aeolus 1D wind data can improve hurricane forecasting with a foretaste of what the more extensive, 3D wind measurements of OWWS promises to provide (click on the title or image to access):
The Impact of New Satellite Wind Measurements on Hurricane & Tropical Cyclone Forecasting
One of the precursor projects for the TWA/CWA OWWS was the CyMISS (Tropical Cyclone intensity Measurements from the ISS) project which ran from 2014 to 2019. Funded by a series of grants from CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) which manages the ISS US National Laboratory for NASA, CyMISS was performed by the science team at Visidyne (the corporate antecedent of TWA) for NASA’s Tropical Cyclone Experiment as part of NASA’s CEO (Crew Earth Observations) activities on the International Space Station. During the course of this five-year project, the CyMISS science team (which is now the TWA/CWA science team) amassed a large collection of storm images that I have shared in a series of blog posts over the years. Below is a collection of 3D images I have shared so far in 2023. The blog posts with details of the images can be accessed by clicking the titles or pictures below… and don’t forget your 3D glasses, Gentle Readers!
3D Views of Tropical Cyclone Gita from the ISS – February 13 & 14, 2018
A Moonlit 3D View of Tropical Cyclone Oma from the ISS – February 20, 2019
3D View of Tropical Cyclone Enawo from the ISS – March 6, 2017
3D View of Tropical Cyclone Debbie from the ISS – March 27, 2017
3D Views of Tropical Cyclone Donna from the ISS – May 7 & 8, 2017
A Moonlit 3D View of Tropical Depression Alberto from the ISS – May 30, 2018
Related Reading
“The Hurricane Hunter Satellites”, Drew Ex Machina, May 15, 2022 [Post]
Articles on the Drew Ex Machina website about the CyMISS project can be found on the CyMISS Page.
How about something on the new and some undeveloped rocket engines in the mix now? India invented a cryogenic hydro-cooled nozzle,
Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), aerospike rocket engine produced by ARCA Space Corporation, Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), being developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company, Nuclear Rocket engines, Warp drive engines and the Helical engine. Lots of new stuff to talk about that will be happening now and in the future. It’ll give you that break you need from the ‘stuffy’ days gone by!