TROPICS03 L2B Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimate (TCIE) Algorithm V1.0

The "Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats" (TROPICS) mission has a goal of providing nearly all-weather observations of three-dimensional temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones. The mission comprises a constellation of five identical Space Vehicles (SVs) conforming to the 3U form factor and hosting a passive microwave spectrometer payload.

Each SV hosts an identical high-performance spectrometer named the TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) that will provide temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line, water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183-GHz water vapor absorption line, imagery in a single channel near 90 GHz for precipitation measurements (when combined with higher resolution water vapor channels), and a single channel near 205 GHz that is more sensitive to cloud-sized ice particles.

The TROPICS Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimate algorithm (TCIE), developed at the University of Wisconsin/CIMSS that uses native microwave brightness temperatures, estimates two primary TC variables: Minimum Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) and Maximum Sustained Winds (MSW). The TROPICS TCIE uses the brightness temperature perturbation of two temperature sounding channels (Ch. 6 and Ch. 7) and one channel from the moisture sounding channel (Ch. 1) along with ancillary information from the TC working best track file and the CIMSS ARCHER algorithm (eye size information) to estimate the TC intensity. This validated TCIE data release starts in June 2023 for the constellation CubeSats, and August 2021 for the TROPICS-01/Pathfinder.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Kristan Morgan
Last Updated March 31, 2025, 16:09 (UTC)
Created March 31, 2025, 16:09 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_@id https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
citation William J. Blackwell, MIT Lincoln Laboratory. 2024-11-01. TROPICS03TCIEL2B. Version 1.0. TROPICS03 L2B Tropical Cyclone Intensity Estimate (TCIE) Algorithm V1.0. Greenbelt, MD. Archived by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Government, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). https://doi.org/10.5067/Y7BWX0E9PDMY. https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/TROPICS03TCIEL2B_1.0.html. Digital Science Data.
creator William J. Blackwell, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
data-presentation-form Digital Science Data
graphic-preview-file https://docserver.gesdisc.eosdis.nasa.gov/public/project/TROPICS/images/TROPICS_Mission.png
harvest_object_id f1f73d83-e806-496e-9757-37c1d9edfe26
harvest_source_id 61638e72-b36c-4866-9d28-551a3062f158
harvest_source_title DNG Legacy Data
identifier C3279630448-GES_DISC
issued 2021-07-19
landingPage https://doi.org/10.5067/Y7BWX0E9PDMY
language {en-US}
metadata_type geospatial
modified 2021-07-19
programCode {026:001}
publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/GESDISC
references {https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3290}
release-place Greenbelt, MD
resource-type Dataset
series-name TROPICS03TCIEL2B
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash a55b89e2fdaaf902e81db1372e0faf71d38c1d71b39ede088646f2bd0d1174d2
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0
temporal 2021-07-19T00:00:00Z/2024-11-18T00:00:00Z
theme {"TROPICS (EVI-3)",geospatial}