The team at Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA), where this author is the Chief Scientist, had the honor of having our poster about our previous work on the ISS, CyMISS, and our current Hurricane Hunter Satellite (HHSat) project presented at the 13th Annual International Space Station Research & Development Conference (ISSRDC 2024) in Boston. With the first pair of HHSats currently being built by our new strategic partner, Phantom Space Corporation, for launch in 2026, this poster presents some of the capabilities of our new satellite constellation with its unique ability to perform stereographic observations of clouds to derive their altitudes and infer the winds with greater spatial resolution and accuracy than any other orbiting system.
Below are the poster and abstracts as presented on July 31, 2024. The PDF of the full size poster is available here.
Here is the poster presented at ISSRDC 2024 about the Hurricane Hunter Satellites (HHSat) and the earlier CyMISS (Tropical Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the ISS) project which was a vital precursor to our current work. Click on image to enlarge the image.
Short Abstract
We present details of the CyMISS project which provided data vital for the successful development of the commercial Hurricane Hunter Satellite (HHSat). Currently under development by TWA and Phantom Space, HHSat will provide much needed high-resolution data on global 3D winds and hurricanes superior to existing or planned satellite systems.
Full Abstract
Andrew LePage, A.T. Stair, John DeVore, Jay Jordano, Paul Pauliukonis, Ilya Schiller, and Dan Harkins – Tropical Weather Analytics, Inc.
Wind is one of the fundamental variables in weather and its characterization is among the more important pieces of information contributing to the accuracy of global numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. In order to address this issue, the Boston-based Tropical Weather Analytics, Inc. (TWA), in partnership with the Montreal-based Canada Weather Analytics, Inc. (CWA), and its new strategic partner, Phantom Space Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona, are collaborating on a privately-funded, commercial venture to develop a constellation of microsatellite-pairs to provide high-resolution, wide-area stereographic observations of cloud cover from orbit in order to measure cloud altitudes and 3D winds including unique measurements of the vertical component of wind. This system’s cloud altitude data, in combination with data readily available from other sources, can also be used to accurately characterize the strength of hurricanes and tropical cyclones in general. The measurement of 3D winds and the characterization of hurricanes are among the top priorities in the National Academies’ 2018 Decadal Strategy for Earth Observations from Space.
This new space-based system has built on a quarter century of research and development efforts by TWA’s corporate antecedent, Visidyne, funded by the US Department of Defense and NASA. The TWA team’s most recent space-based investigation into orbital cloud stereography was the CyMISS (Tropical Cyclone intensity Measurements from the ISS) project which ran from 2014 to 2019 on the International Space Station (ISS). Funded by a series of grants from CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space), CyMISS was executed by the TWA science team for NASA’s Tropical Cyclone Experiment as part of NASA’s CEO (Crew Earth Observations) activities on the ISS. CyMISS provided stereo imagery of over 80 tropical cyclones and other atmospheric phenomena, such as wildfires, using a specially designed photography protocol. This unique set of image sequences has provided vital data for the refinement of techniques to perform precision orbital stereography of clouds and earned the Innovation in Earth Science and Remote Sensing Award from CASIS in 2017.
The first elements of this space-based system are the Hurricane Hunter Satellites (HHSats) being developed by TWA and Phantom Space. The initial constellation of five satellite-pairs will use 12U CubeSats in high-inclination, low Earth orbits fitted with an array of visible cameras to provide wide-area, daytime stereographic imagery with a pixel scale of about 100 meters. In addition to generating 2D cloud imagery with a resolution superior to that from JPSS and GOES, HHSat will provide unique 3D cloud imagery to aid weather analysts. Proprietary stereo image processing techniques developed by TWA using data from CyMISS will also allow the altitudes of cloud features to be measured to an accuracy as good as ±100 meters. Tracking of the changing positions and altitudes of those features during the course of an observation session will allow all three wind velocity components to be measured to an accuracy approaching one meter/second with sub-kilometer spatial resolution – far superior to any existing or currently planned satellite-based system.
As fundraising efforts continue to build the full HHSat constellation and its ground segment, the first pair of HHSats is currently being built by Phantom Space which will launch the satellites in 2026 and operate them during a planned five-year lifetime. This endeavor represents a major success story of using the ISS for research towards the remote sensing of global winds and hurricanes.
Presenter Biography
Andrew LePage is the Chief Scientist of Tropical Weather Analytics (TWA) responsible for the development and evaluation of remote sensing applications and techniques including the Hurricane Hunter Satellite (HHSat). He was the lead scientist responsible for the company’s five-year CyMISS project which has led to the success of the HHSat.
Related Reading
“Accurate Characterization of 3D Winds Using Stereographic Observations from the Hurricane Hunter Satellites”, Drew Ex Machina, January 30, 3024 [Post]
“The Hurricane Hunter Satellites”, Drew Ex Machina, May 15, 2022 [Post]
More information on HHSat and its capabilities can be found in the blog posts on the TWA website here.