NASA launches a set of eight so-called micro satellites later this year to collect weather data in a new way. [NASAWatch.com]NASAWatch.com Editor Keith Cowing says they are less complex and you could put four or five inside your car.
Current weather satellites are much larger.
“They're big things,” Cowing says. “I mean, the size of a school bus. These things now have one purpose only and that is to look at the higher-altitude winds in hurricanes in our hemisphere, tropical cyclones in the Pacific part of the world.”
The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System will launch in December. This is considered to be an experiment, to see if this is a better way to monitor major weather events.
“It's sort deciding where you want the big stuff,” he says. “Do you want the big stuff in space? Or, do you want the big stuff on earth, listening to the little stuff in space?”