Veery: Flat-panel Scatterometer for Hourly Ocean Surface Vector Winds

Presenter: Patrick Walton
Organization: Care Weather
Co-Authors: nan

Abstract

When it comes to measuring the dynamics of the atmosphere, refresh rate is critical to resolving dynamic phenomena which evolve on short timescales. This is true of ocean surface vector winds, which have traditionally been measured by active and passive microwave systems. The active systems, scatterometers  perform better in the adverse weather conditions that are of the most interest. Despite this, the refresh rate of international scatterometer-derived ocean surface winds hangs around a mean time between hits of 18 hours (technically around 6, but only if you include Chinese systems). A constellation capable of hourly refresh requires a shift from one-off scatterometer missions to a standard design mass-produced to maintain a constellation with dozens of satellites. The objective of the Veery Instrument Incubator Project is to develop a scatterometer that is small, low-cost, and mass-producible while matching the state-of-the-art in performance. Optimizing systems for mass-production requires iteration, so Care Weather has four sequential cubesat pathfinder scatterometer iterations manifest for launch in 2027 to demonstrate a complete scatterometer system on orbit with limited performance. With lessons learned from these experiments, we expect to launch the full-performance microsatellite scatterometer in 2028.