“Investigations of Cumulus Updrafts” Selected for Funding

The NASA Earth Venture Mission proposal  “Investigations of Cumulus UpdraftS” (INCUS) was selected for funding.  Walt Petersen (ST10) and Patrick Gatlin (ST11) are MSFC Co-Is on the INCUS mission. The mission will formation fly a sequence of three radar-carrying cubesats separated by 30-120 seconds of time, with one satellite also carrying a microwave radiometer. Collectively, the sequence of radar profiles will enable estimation of vertical mass fluxes, motions and ice mass in deep convective storm towers over a global tropical domain. The MSFC support of INCUS involves leadership of satellite product validation efforts targeted to planning and executing field collection of 3-D storm motion profiles via networks of coordinated multi-Doppler and polarimetric radars at the Earth’s surface.  The mission is led by PI Susan Van Den Heever, Colorado State University, with JPL as the managing Center and is currently targeted for launch in the late FY2026/early FY2027 timeframe.

cumulus-clouds-1
Scroll to Top