NASA believes that it can carry out useful studies on climate in connection with space missions and is making some plans in this regard. NASA, which has rolled up its sleeves for climate, will examine when and where convective storms, heavy precipitation and clouds form to determine their effects on weather and climate models.
NASA, which will investigate tropical and thunderstorms and examine all these, is expected to start this new mission in 2027 as part of the Earth Enterprise Program. The mission will be carried out with three SmallSats flying in a coordinated manner called Investigation of Convective Increases (INCUS).
INCUS was selected from 12 offers
Storms that begin with rapidly rising water vapor and air form high clouds that produce rain, hail and weather events such as thunder and lightning. The greater this vapor and air mass carried upwards in the atmosphere, the greater the risk of extreme weather. The vertical transport of air and water vapor, known as convective mass flow (CMF), ranks as one of the biggest unknowns in air and climate.
To investigate all this, the INCUS mission was planned at the agency’s request for Earth Venture Mission-3 (EVM-3). “INCUS fills an important gap in helping us understand extreme weather and its impact on climate models,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, co-director of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. For NASA, which chose INCUS to develop out of 12 proposals, this mission will cost $177 million.
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