TEMPEST-D

TEMPEST-D [Blue Canyon Tech]

The TEMPEST-D (Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems - Demonstrator) is a 6U CubeSat mission to provide risk mitigation for the six-satellite TEMPEST mission that will provide the first temporal observations of cloud and precipitation processes on a global scale.

These observations are important to understand the linkages in and between Earth’s water and energy balance, as well as to improve our understanding of cloud model microphysical processes that are vital to climate change prediction.

TEMPEST-D consists of one of the proposed TEMPEST 6U CubeSats, to raise the technology readiness level of the system to TRL 9 and to demonstrate its measurement capabilities.

The payload consists of the JPL radiometer developed for the failed RACE mission and an High-frequency Airborne Microwave and Millimeter-wave Radiometer (HAMMR) IIP-10 radiometer. The CubeSat bus is built by Blue Canyon Technologies. A flight-spare instrument was built and was later integrated into the STP-H8 payload to be attached to the ISS.

It was selected in 2015 by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) to be launched as part of the ELaNa program. It was launched on the ELaNa-23 mission on board of Cygnus CRS-9 to the ISS, where it was deployed on 13 July 2018 via the JEM airlock.

A spare instrument was included in the STP-H8 payload attached to the ISS.

While the envisaged operational TEMPEST constellation did not materialize, the instrument will be flown on the three satellites of the INCUS mission.