NASA launched a constellation of eight small satellites
designed to aid weather forecasters in understanding and predicting hurricane
intensity. A rocket propelled into orbit eight tiny NASA satellites meant to
peer deeply into hurricanes and help scientists better understand how they gain
force, the US space agency said. NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite
System mission, or CYGNSS, was launched aboard Orbital ATK's Pegasus rocket XL.
The rocket was carried on the underside of the company's Stargazer L-1011
aircraft which deploys the Pegasus XL rocket in mid-flight. “All CYGNSS
satellites have been successfully deployed,” Orbital ATK tweeted at 8:53 am
(local time). The $157 million satellites “will probe the inner core of
hurricanes to learn about their rapid intensification,” a NASA spokesperson
said. Current remote sensing technology is unable to peer past heavy rain into
the eye of a hurricane. Recently, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an
image of tropical cyclone Vardah that showed strongest storms expanding west of
the center. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard
the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible image of tropical cyclone
Vardah in the central Bay of Bengal, Northern Indian Ocean. The VIIRS image
showed thunderstorms wrapping around the low level center and expanding and
becoming more persistent just to the northwest of the low-level circulation
center. Moderate vertical wind shear is the reason for the displacement of the
strongest storms. Despite the wind shear Vardah has become more organised over
the previous 24 hours and had strengthened. The deployment of these new
satellites should help deliver greater clarity to meteorological scientists in
both predicting the development of impending hurricanes and the impact of their
passing.
Source:
DNA-17th-December-2016
