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In July, NASA astronauts on the International Space Station deployed a small satellite called RainCube that monitors storms and sends information about them to researchers. The small CubeSat returned his first storm images in August, relaying the data he had captured on a storm in Mexico. Then, RainCube captured images of the first rain of Hurricane Florence.
RainCube means Radar in a CubeSat, the name for the main purpose of the satellite: to use radar signals for real-time weather monitoring. The objective of the initial mission is simple: to test if such satellites could be used one day to improve forecasts. RainCube alone will not be able to fulfill this mission, but many work together.
Existing ground prediction tools have significantly improved the quality of weather forecasts over the years, but they can still be wrong. CubeSats contributing to the prediction of data in low Earth orbit can change that.
NASA calls this CubeSat a "mini rain radar" and explains that many of these devices could "fly together like geese" to keep up with the storms. The launch cost of each RainCube is relatively low, making it possible to launch many applications for better quality storm monitoring. It remains to be seen whether a fleet of CubeSats will be used for this purpose.
Graeme Stephens, director of NASA's JPL Climate Science Center, said:
What RainCube offers on the one hand, is a demonstration of the measures we currently have in space today. But what this really shows is the potential in an entirely new and different way to observe the Earth with many small radars. This will open a new perspective on the hydrological cycle of the Earth.
SOURCE: NASA 1, 2
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