Title: Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Technology Demonstration (TEMPEST-D): Risk Reduction for Constellations of 6U-Class Nanosatellites
Presenting Author: Steven C. Reising
Organization: Colorado State University
Co-Author(s): Todd C. Gaier, Sharmila Padmanabhan, Boon H. Lim, Cate Heneghan, Shannon T. Brown, Tooraj Kia and Ziad S. Haddad, NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Christian D. Kummerow, V. Chandrasekar, Jon Olson and Susan C. van den Heever, Colorado State University; Christopher S. Ruf, University of Michigan; Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, University of Wisconsin Madison; Zhengzhao Johnny Luo, City College of New York; S. Joseph Munchak, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; and Sid-Ahmed Boukabara, NOAA NESDIS STAR

Abstract:
The Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Technology Demonstration (TEMPEST-D) will demonstrate technology required to enable a constellation of 6U-Class nanosatellites to directly observe the time evolution of clouds and study the conditions that control the transition of clouds to precipitation using high-temporal resolution observations. TEMPEST-D millimeter-wave radiometers measuring in the range of 89 to 183 GHz will penetrate into the cloud to observe key changes as the cloud begins to precipitate or ice accumulates inside the storm. The evolution of ice formation in clouds is important for climate prediction since it largely drives Earth's radiation budget. TEMPEST-D provides observations at five millimeter-wave frequencies from 89 to 183 GHz using a single compact instrument that is well suited for the 6U-Class architecture and fits well within the capabilities of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), for which TEMPEST-D was approved in February 2015. TEMPEST-D will demonstrate that millimeter-wave radiometer measurements from 6U-Class nanosatellites can be precisely geolocated and remain calibrated with respect to other orbiting millimeter-wave radiometers with similar frequencies. The full TEMPEST mission involves the deployment of 5-10 identical 6U-Class satellites in the same orbital plane with 5-10 minute spacing at roughly 400 km altitude and 50°-65° inclination. A baseline one-year mission is expected to capture 3 million observations of precipitation, including 100,000 deep convective events. The full TEMPEST mission improves understanding of cloud processes and helps to constrain one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate models. TEMPEST is designed to provide critical information on the time evolution of cloud and precipitation microphysics, yielding a first-order understanding of the behavior of assumptions in current cloud-model parameterizations in diverse climate regimes.