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Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) teamed up June 11 and 12 to simulate emergency procedures they would use to rescue the Artemis II crew in the event of a launch emergency. The simulations, which took place off the coast of Florida and were supported by launch and flight control teams, are preparing NASA to send four astronauts around the Moon and back next year as part of the agency’s first crewed Artemis mission.
The team rehearsed procedures they would use to rescue the crew during an abort of NASA’s Orion spacecraft while the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is still on the launch pad, as well as during ascent to space. A set of test mannequins and a representative version of Orion called the Crew Module Test Article, were used during the tests.
The launch team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, flight controllers in mission control at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, as well as the mission management team, all worked together, exercising their integrated procedures for these emergency scenarios.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.NASA/Isaac Watson “Part of preparing to send humans to the Moon is ensuring our teams are ready for any scenario on launch day,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program, and who also is chair of the mission management team for Artemis II. “We’re getting closer to our bold mission to send four astronauts around the Moon, and our integrated testing helps ensure we’re ready to bring them home in any scenario.”
The launch pad abort scenario was up first. The teams conducted a normal launch countdown before declaring an abort before the rocket was scheduled to launch. During a real pad emergency, Orion’s launch abort system would propel Orion and its crew a safe distance away and orient it for splashdown before the capsule’s parachutes would then deploy ahead of a safe splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for a launch pad abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson For the simulated splashdown, the test Orion with mannequins aboard was placed in the water five miles east of Kennedy. Once the launch team made the simulated pad abort call, two Navy helicopters carrying U.S. Air Force pararescuers departed nearby Patrick Space Force Base. The rescuers jumped into the water with unique DoD and NASA rescue equipment to safely approach the spacecraft, retrieve the mannequin crew, and transport them for medical care in the helicopters, just as they would do in the event of an actual pad abort during the Artemis II mission.
The next day focused on an abort scenario during ascent to space.
The Artemis recovery team set up another simulation at sea 12 miles east of Kennedy, using the Orion crew module test article and mannequins. With launch and flight control teams supporting, as was the Artemis II crew inside a simulator at Johnson, the rescue team sprung into action after receiving the simulated ascent abort call and began rescue procedures using a C-17 aircraft and U.S. Air Force pararescuers. Upon reaching the capsule, the rescuers jumped from the C-17 with DoD and NASA unique rescue gear. In an actual ascent abort, Orion would separate from the rocket in milliseconds to safely get away prior to deploying parachutes and splashing down.
Teams with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) rehearse recovery procedures for an ascent abort scenario off the coast of Florida near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, June 12, 2025. NASA/Isaac Watson Rescue procedures are similar to those used in the Underway Recovery Test conducted off the California coast in March. This demonstration ended with opening the hatch and extracting the mannequins from the capsule, so teams stopped without completing the helicopter transportation that would be used during a real rescue.
Exercising procedures for extreme scenarios is part of NASA’s work to execute its mission and keep the crew safe. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
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By NASA
Explore Webb Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 5 Min Read NASA’s Webb ‘UNCOVERs’ Galaxy Population Driving Cosmic Renovation
White diamonds show the locations of 20 of the 83 young, low-mass, starburst galaxies found in infrared images of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Full image and description shown below. Credits:
NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025 Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that transformed the early universe into the one we know today.
“When it comes to producing ultraviolet light, these small galaxies punch well above their weight,” said Isak Wold, an assistant research scientist at Catholic University of America in Washington and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Our analysis of these tiny but mighty galaxies is 10 times more sensitive than previous studies, and shows they existed in sufficient numbers and packed enough ultraviolet power to drive this cosmic renovation.”
Wold discussed his findings Wednesday at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, Alaska. The study took advantage of existing imaging collected by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument, as well as new observations made with its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument.
Image A: Webb search finds dozens of tiny, young star-forming galaxies
Symbols mark the locations of young, low-mass galaxies bursting with new stars when the universe was about 800 million years old. Using a filter sensitive to such galaxies, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope imaged them with the help of a natural gravitational lens created by the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744. In all, 83 young galaxies were found, but only the 20 shown here (white diamonds) were selected for deeper study. The inset zooms into one of the galaxies.
Download high-resolution images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025 The tiny galaxies were discovered by Wold and his Goddard colleagues, Sangeeta Malhotra and James Rhoads, by sifting through Webb images captured as part of the UNCOVER (Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization) observing program, led by Rachel Bezanson at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
The project mapped a giant galaxy cluster known as Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora’s cluster, located about 4 billion light-years away in the southern constellation Sculptor. The cluster’s mass forms a gravitational lens that magnifies distant sources, adding to Webb’s already considerable reach.
Image B: Galaxy cluster helps reveal young, low-mass galaxies bursting with stars
White diamonds show the locations of 20 of the 83 young, low-mass, starburst galaxies found in infrared images of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. This composite incorporates images taken through three NIRCam filters (F200W as blue, F410M as green, and F444W as red). The F410M filter is highly sensitive to light emitted by doubly ionized oxygen — oxygen atoms that have been stripped of two electrons — at a time when reionization was well underway. Emitted as green light, the glow was stretched into the infrared as it traversed the expanding universe over billions of years. The cluster’s mass acts as a natural magnifying glass, allowing astronomers to see these tiny galaxies as they were when the universe was about 800 million years old. NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025 For much of its first billion years, the universe was immersed in a fog of neutral hydrogen gas. Today, this gas is ionized — stripped of its electrons. Astronomers, who refer to this transformation as reionization, have long wondered which types of objects were most responsible: big galaxies, small galaxies, or supermassive black holes in active galaxies. As one of its main goals, NASA’s Webb was specifically designed to address key questions about this major transition in the history of the universe.
Recent studies have shown that small galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation could have played an outsized role. Such galaxies are rare today, making up only about 1% of those around us. But they were abundant when the universe was about 800 million years old, an epoch astronomers refer to as redshift 7, when reionization was well underway.
The team searched for small galaxies of the right cosmic age that showed signs of extreme star formation, called starbursts, in NIRCam images of the cluster.
“Low-mass galaxies gather less neutral hydrogen gas around them, which makes it easier for ionizing ultraviolet light to escape,” Rhoads said. “Likewise, starburst episodes not only produce plentiful ultraviolet light — they also carve channels into a galaxy’s interstellar matter that helps this light break out.”
Image C: A deeper look into small, young, star-forming galaxies during reionization
At left is an enlarged infrared view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 with three young, star-forming galaxies highlighted by green diamonds. The center column shows close-ups of each galaxy, along with their designations, the amount of magnification provided by the cluster’s gravitational lens, their redshifts (shown as z — all correspond to a cosmic age of about 790 million years), and their estimated mass of stars. At right, measurements from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRSpec instrument confirm that the galaxies produce strong emission in the light of doubly ionized oxygen (green bars), indicating vigorous star formation is taking place. NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025 The astronomers looked for strong sources of a specific wavelength of light that signifies the presence of high-energy processes: a green line emitted by oxygen atoms that have lost two electrons. Originally emitted as visible light in the early cosmos, the green glow from doubly ionized oxygen was stretched into the infrared as it traversed the expanding universe and eventually reached Webb’s instruments.
This technique revealed 83 small starburst galaxies as they appear when the universe was 800 million years old, or about 6% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. The team selected 20 of these for deeper inspection using NIRSpec.
“These galaxies are so small that, to build the equivalent stellar mass of our own Milky Way galaxy, you’d need from 2,000 to 200,000 of them,” Malhotra said. “But we are able to detect them because of our novel sample selection technique combined with gravitational lensing.”
Image D: Tiny but mighty galaxy helped clear cosmic fog
One of the most interesting galaxies of the study, dubbed 41028 (the green oval at center), has an estimated stellar mass of just 2 million Suns — comparable to the masses of the largest star clusters in our own Milky Way galaxy. NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025 Similar types of galaxies in the present-day universe, such as green peas, release about 25% of their ionizing ultraviolet light into surrounding space. If the low-mass starburst galaxies explored by Wold and his team release a similar amount, they can account for all of the ultraviolet light needed to convert the universe’s neutral hydrogen to its ionized form.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/webb
By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 11, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s F-15D research aircraft conducts a calibration flight of a shock-sensing probe near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The shock-sensing probe is designed to measure the signature and strength of shock waves in flight. The probe was validated during dual F-15 flights and will be flown behind NASA’s X-59 to measure small pressure changes caused by shock waves in support of the agency’s Quesst mission.NASA/Jim Ross High over the Mojave Desert, two NASA F-15 research jets made a series of flights throughout May to validate tools designed to measure and record the shock waves that will be produced by the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic experimental aircraft.
The F-15s, carrying the recording tools, flew faster than the speed of sound, matching the conditions the X-59 is expected to fly. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission to gather data that can help lead to quiet commercial supersonic flight over land.
The team behind the successful test flight series operates under the Schlieren, Airborne Measurements, and Range Operations for Quesst (SCHAMROQ) project at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. There, they developed tools that will measure and visualize the X-59’s unique shock waves when it flies at Mach 1.4 and altitudes above 50,000 feet. For a typical supersonic aircraft, those shock waves would result in a sonic boom. But thanks to the X-59’s design and technologies, it will generate just a quiet thump.
Cheng Moua, engineering project manager for SCHAMROQ, described the validation flight campaign as “a graduation exercise – it brings all the pieces together in their final configuration and proves that they will work.”
NASA began to develop the tools years ago, anchored by the arrival of one of the two F-15s – an F-15D from the U.S. Air Force – a tactical aircraft delivered without research instrumentation.
“It showed up as a former war-fighting machine without a research-capable instrumentation system – no telemetry, no HD video, no data recording,” Cheng said. “Now it’s a fully instrumented research platform.”
The team used both F-15s to validate three key tools:
A shock wave-measuring device called a near-field shock-sensing probe A guidance capability known as an Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System An Airborne Schlieren Photography System that will allow the capture of images that render visible the density changes in air caused by the X-59 Before the F-15D’s arrival, Armstrong relied on the second F-15 flown during this campaign – an F-15B typically used to test equipment, train pilots, and support other flight projects. The SCHAMROQ project used the two aircraft to successfully complete “dual ship flights,” a series of flight tests using two aircraft simultaneously. Both aircraft flew in formation carrying near-field shock-sensing probes and collected data from one another to test the probes and validate the tools under real-world conditions. The data help confirm how shock waves form and evolve during flight.
NASA Photographer Carla Thomas holds the Airborne Schlieren Photography System (ASPS), aiming it out the window in flight. The ASPS uses a photographic method called schlieren imaging, capable of visualizing changes in air density and revealing shock waves and air flow patterns around moving objects. The system is one of several tools validated during recent dual F-15 flights at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in support of NASA’s Quesst mission, ahead of the X-59’s first flight. NASA/Carla Thomas Keeping Things ALIGNed
For the Quesst mission, the F-15D will lead data-gathering efforts using the onboard probe, while the F-15B will serve as the backup. When flown behind the X-59, the probe will help measure small pressure changes caused by the shock waves and validate predictions made years ago when the plane’s design was first created.
The schlieren photography systems aboard the F-15s will provide Quesst researchers with crucial data. Other tools, like computer simulations that predict airflow and wind tunnel tests are helpful, but schlieren imagery shows real-world airflow, especially in tricky zones like the engine and air inlet.
For that system to work correctly, the two aircraft will need to be precisely positioned during the test flights. Their pilots will be using a NASA-developed software tool called the Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System (ALIGNS).
“ALIGNS acts as a guidance system for the pilots,” said Troy Robillos, a NASA researcher who led development of ALIGNS. “It shows them where to position the aircraft to either probe a shock wave at a specific point or to get into the correct geometry for schlieren photography.”
The schlieren system involves a handheld high-speed camera with a telescopic lens that captures hundreds of frames per second and visualizes changes in air density – but only if it can use the sun as a backdrop.
Two NASA F-15 aircraft sit on the ramp at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California, ahead of dual F-15 flights that validated the integration of three tools – the Airborne Schlieren Photography System (ASPS), the Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System (ALIGNS), and shock-sensing probe. Together these tools will measure and visualize the shock waves generated by NASA’s X-59.NASA/Genaro Vavuris “The photographer holds the camera to their chest, aiming out the side of the cockpit canopy at the sun, while the pilot maneuvers through a 100-foot-wide target zone,” said Edward Haering, a NASA aerospace engineer who leads research on schlieren. “If the sun leaves the frame, we lose that data, so we fly multiple passes to make sure we capture the shot.”
Aligning two fast-moving aircraft against the backdrop of the sun is the most challenging part. The photographer must capture the aircraft flying across the center of the sun, and even the slightest shift can affect the shot and reduce the quality of the data.
“It’s like trying to take a photo through a straw while flying supersonic,” Robillos said.
But with ALIGNS, the process is much more accurate. The software runs on ruggedized tablets and uses GPS data from both aircraft to calculate when the aircraft are in position for probing and to capture schlieren imagery. Giving pilots real-time instructions, enabling them to achieve precise positioning.
The X-59 team’s validation milestone for the schlieren imaging and other systems confirms that NASA’s core tools for measuring shock waves are ready to study the X-59 in flight, checking the aircraft’s unique acoustics to confirm its quieter sonic “thump.”
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Last Updated Jun 10, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
Armstrong Flight Research Center Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Ames Research Center Commercial Supersonic Technology Glenn Research Center Integrated Aviation Systems Program Langley Research Center Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Quesst: The Vehicle Supersonic Flight Explore More
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By NASA
Explore This Section Earth Earth Observer Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam Announcements More Archives Conference Schedules Style Guide 9 min read
NASA’s TROPICS Mission: Offering Detailed Images and Analysis of Tropical Cyclones
Introduction
Tropical cyclones represent a danger to life, property, and the economies of communities. Researchers who study tropical cyclones have focused on remote observations using space-based platforms to image these storms, inform forecasts, better predict landfall, and improve understanding of storm dynamics and precipitation evolution – see Figure 1.
Figure 1. TROPICS imagery of Typhoon Kong-rey observed on October 29, 2024 near 205 GHz revealing a large and well-defined eye. Figure credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory The tropical cyclone community has leveraged data from Earth observing platforms for more than 30 years. These data have been retrieved from numerous instruments including: the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)–Series R satellites; the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI); the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI); the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite (DSMP) satellites; the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on Aqua; AMSR2 on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission–Water (GCOM-W) mission; the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on Aqua and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on the NASA–NOAA Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), NOAA-20, and NOAA-21; the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua Platform; and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP, as well as on the first two Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) missions (i.e., NOAA-20 and NOAA-21).
Despite having decades of data at their disposal, scientists lack data from instruments placed in low-inclination orbits that provide more frequent views within tropical regions. This limitation is especially pronounced in the tropical and subtropical latitudes, which is where tropical storms develop and intensify.
The NASA Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) grew from the Precipitation and All-weather Temperature and Humidity (PATH) to address a need for obtaining three-dimensional (3D) temperature and humidity measurements as well as precipitation with a temporal revisit rate of one hour or better – see Figure 2. TROPICS uses multiple small satellites flying in a carefully engineered formation to obtain rapid revisits of measurements of precipitation structure within the storms, as well as temperature and humidity profiles, both within and outside of the storms, including the intensity of the upper-level warm core. In addition, the instruments provide a median revisit time of about one hour. The data gathered also informs changes in storm track and intensity and provides data to improve weather prediction models.
The imagery is focused on inner storm structure (near 91 and 205 GHz), temperature soundings (near 118 GHz), and moisture soundings (near 183 GHz). Spatial resolution at nadir is approximately 24 km (16.8 mi) for temperature and 17 km (10.6 mi) for moisture and precipitation, covering a swath of approximately 2000 km (1243 mi) in width. Researchers can use TROPICS data to create hundreds of high-resolution images of tropical cyclones throughout their lifecycle.
Figure 2. TROPICS space vehicle showing the CubeSat bus, radiometer payload, and deployed articulated solar array. Figure credit: Blue Canyon Technologies and MIT Lincoln Laboratory This article provides an overview of the two years of successful science operations of TROPICS, with a focus on the suite of geophysical Level-2 (L2) products (e.g., atmospheric vertical temperature and moisture profiles, instantaneous surface rain rate, and tropical cyclone intensity) and the science investigations resulting from these measurements. The complete article, available in the Proceedings Of The IEEE: Special Issue On Satellite Remote Sensing Of The Earth, provides more comprehensive details of the results.
From Pathfinder to Constellation
A single TROPICS satellite was launched as a Pathfinder vehicle on June 30, 2021, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit. TROPICS was originally conceived as a six-satellite constellation, with two satellites launched into each of three low-inclination orbits. Regrettably, the first launch, on June 22, 2022 aboard an Astra Rocket 3.3, failed to reach orbit. While unfortunate, the mission could still proceed with four satellites and meet its baseline revisit rate requirement (with no margin), with the silver lining of an extra year of data gathered from TROPICS Pathfinder that allowed the tropical cyclone research community to prepare and test communications systems and data processing algorithms before the launch of the four remaining constellation satellites. These satellites were deployed on two separate launches – May 8, 2023 and May 26, 2023 aboard a Rocket Lab launch vehicle. The early testing accelerated calibration and validation for the constellation.
Collecting Data Critical to Understanding Tropical Cyclones
Tropical cyclone investigations require rapid quantitative observations to create 2D storm structure information. The four radiance data products in the TROPICS constellation [i.e., antenna temperature (L1a), brightness temperature (L1b), unified brightness temperature, and regularized scan pattern and limb-adjusted brightness temperature (L1c)] penetrate below the cloud top to gather data at greater frequency for a lower cost than current operational systems. The constellation data has been used to evaluate the development of the warm core and evolution of the ice water path within storms – two indicators of storm formation and subsequent changes in intensity.
The upper-level warm core is key to tropical cyclone development and intensification. Precipitation may instigate rapid intensification through convective bursts that are characterized by expanding cold cloud tops, increasing ice scattering, lightning, and towers of intense rain and ice water that are indicative of strong updrafts. TROPICS frequencies provide a wealth of information on scattering by precipitation-sized ice particles in the eyewall and rainbands that will allow for researchers to track the macrostructure of convective bursts in tropical cyclones across the globe. In addition, TROPICS data helps clarify how variations in environmental humidity around tropical cyclones affect storm structure and intensification.
Upper-level Warm Core
Analysis of the upper-level warm core of a tropical cyclone reveals valuable information about the storm’s development. The tropical cyclone community is using data from TROPICS to understand the processes that lead to precipitating ice structure and the role it plays in intensification – see Figure 3. While the warm core has been studied for decades, TROPICS provides a new opportunity to get high-revisit rate estimates of the atmospheric vertical temperature profile. By pairing the temperature profile with the atmospheric vertical moisture profile, researchers can define the relative humidity in the lower-to-middle troposphere, which is critical to understanding the impact of dry environmental air on storm evolution and structure.
Figure 3. TROPICS-3 imagery of Typhoon Kong-rey observed on October 29, 2024, a Category-5 storm that formed in the Pacific Ocean basin. Data gathered near 118 GHz was used to characterize temperature while data gathered near 205 GHz [right] revealed more about the inner structure of the storm. These data are used to define the warm core of the well-defined eye, located at 18.5° N. Figure Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ice Water Path and Precipitation
Another variable that helps to provide insight into the development of tropical cyclones is the ice water path, which details the total mass of ice present in a vertical column of the atmosphere and is therefore useful for characterizing the structure and intensity of these storms. Increasing ice water path can reflect strengthening convection within a storm and thereby be an indicator of likely intensification – see Figure 4. TROPICS is the first spaceborne sensor equipped with a 205-GHz channel that, along with the traditional 89, 118, and 183 GHz channels, is more sensitive to detecting precipitation-sized ice particles. In addition, the TROPICS Precipitation Retrieval and Profiling Scheme (PRPS) provides an estimate of precipitation. This scheme is based solely on the satellite radiances linked to precipitation rates, which can be used to generate products across time scales, from near-real-time to climatological scales.
Figure 4. Global precipitation ice water path (PIWP) retrievals derived from TROPICS [top] compared to those derived using data from the GPM Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (GPM DPR) [bottom] The strong agreement between the two datasets is further validated through case studies over hurricanes, where TROPICS observations correspond well with known storm characteristics. Figure Credit: Blackwell, W. J. et al. (2025) Collaborations and TROPICS Data in Action
To evaluate and enhance the data gathered by TROPICS, the TROPICS application team enlisted the assistance of operational weather forecasters that formed the TROPICS Early Adopters program. In 2018, the program connected the application team to stakeholders interested in using TROPICS data for research, forecasting, and decision making. This collaboration improved approaches to diagnose and predict tropical cyclones. For example, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) found that the new TROPICS channel at 204.8 GHz offered the best approach to capture convective storm structure, followed by the more traditionally used 91-GHz channel. In addition, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has been using TROPICS data to center-fix tropical cyclones and identify cloud formations. In particular, the JTWC team found that the 91-GHz channel was most useful for identifying cloud structure. Both NHC and JTWC found the TROPICS high revisit rate to be beneficial.
In 2024, the TROPICS applications team developed the TROPICS Satellite Validation Module as part of the NOAA Hurricane Research Division’s annual Advancing the Prediction of Hurricanes Experiment (APHEX). The module coordinated data collection from NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft beneath TROPICS satellite overpasses to provide data to calibrate and validate TROPICS temperature, moisture, and precipitation measurements. Using this approach, the Hurricane Hunter team tracked Hurricane Ernesto over the central North Atlantic on August 15 and 16, 2024 and used the data to characterize the environment of Ernesto’s rain bands – see Figure 5.
Figure 5. Brightness temperature (K) measured at 205 GHz from TROPICS-5 [right] and TROPICS-6 [left and center] from Hurricane Ernesto on August 15 and 16, 2024. The shaded circles denote 850–700 hPa relative humidity (%). Wind barbs are 850–700 hPa layer averaged winds (kt). Dropsonde data within 30 minutes of the TROPICS overpass times are plotted. Figure Credit: Blackwell, W. J. et al. (2025) In addition, the team used TROPICS observations in combination with GPM constellation precipitation estimates to characterize the lifecycle of Hurricane Franklin, which formed on August 19, 2023 and underwent a period of rapid intensification about eight days later. Intensification of the storm, in particular the period of rapid intensification (45 knot increase in maximum winds in 24 hours), occurred in association with a decrease in environmental vertical wind shear, a contraction of the radius of maximum precipitation, and an increase in the precipitation rate. Intensification ended with the formation of secondary rainbands and an outward shift in the radius of maximum precipitation.
Conclusion
TROPICS data offer the potential for improving forecasts from numerical weather prediction models and operational forecasts using its high spatial resolution and high revisit rates that enable enhanced characterization of tropical cyclones globally. To date, the TROPICS mission has produced a high-quality aggregate data record spanning 10 billion observations and 10 satellite years, using relatively low-cost microwave sounder constellations. All L1 (i.e., radiances) and L2 (i.e., geophysical products) data products and Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents are available to the general public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). The GES DISC data discussed in this article include L1 and L2 products for TROPICS-1, TROPICS-3, TROPICS-5, and TROPICS-6.
TROPICS data has aided hurricane track forecasting for multiple storms as forecasters have used the data at multiple operational tropical cyclone forecast centers. Data gathered by TROPICS will soon be complemented by multiple commercial constellations that are coming online to improve the revisit rate and performance.
William Blackwell
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
wjb@ll.mit.edu
Scott Braun
NASA GSFC, TROPICS Project Scientist
scott.a.braun@nasa.gov
Stacy Kish
Earth Observer Staff
Earthspin.science@gmail.com
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Last Updated Jun 09, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:02:00 ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski is heading to the International Space Station on his first mission as part of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). He is the second ESA project astronaut from a new generation of Europeans to fly on a commercial human spaceflight mission with Axiom Space.
Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission—called Ignis—features an ambitious technological and scientific programme. It includes several experiments proposed by the Polish space industry and developed in cooperation with ESA, along with additional ESA-led experiments.
Follow Sławosz's journey on the Ignis mission website and discover more about the next mission patch to be hung on the walls of the Columbus Control Centre.
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