Page 94 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

strength, explained A.T. Stair, president of Visidyne
and co-investigator for CyMISS.
The ISS National Lab provides “Our objective is to obtain high-resolution
a unique platform for monitoring measurements of several tropical cyclones that are
tropical cyclones because its orbit Category 3 and higher,” said Stair. “And we now have
a very good collection of almost a dozen of them.”
covers virtually all the regions Building on the success of the CyMISS project,
where tropical cyclones are found. Visidyne has started a new commercial company
called Trans World Analytics, Inc. (TWAI). The company
will first use high-altitude, solar-powered vehicles,
followed by microsatellites, to characterize tropical
cyclone eyewall clouds and measure storm intensities,
better prepare for such storms. Providing such with the goal of achieving lifesaving advancements
measurements is the aim of an ISS National Lab project in global knowledge about these devastating storms.
by Visidyne, Inc. called Cyclone Intensity Measurements
from the ISS (CyMISS). The CyMISS project is using The United States currently tracks tropical cyclones
the unique vantage point of LEO to measure the most using a combination of satellite imagery, Doppler radar,
intense area outside a tropical cyclone’s eye, called and hurricane hunter aircraft. Weather monitoring
the eyewall. Towering eyewall clouds are the strongest satellites, which have been in use since the 1960s,
indicators of storm intensity and trajectory, and higher- are helpful in tracking storm development over the
accuracy measurements of the altitudes of these clouds ocean and predicting surface tracks using sequences
could lead to better predictions of a storm’s path and of images. Meteorologists use Doppler radar to detect

Hurricane Florence as photographed from the ISS on September 10, 2018.
Image credit: NASA

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