Flock of ‘microsats’ launched to measure winds inside hurricanes

A winged Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of a carrier jet off the east coast of Florida and fired into orbit Thursday with eight research satellites to fly around the tropics and return measurements of winds at the cores of hurricanes. The wind data should help scientists better understand the formation, growth and dissipation of tropical cyclones, and lessons from the $157 million Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System may improve hurricane forecasting, particularly the strength of storms at landfall. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Dec 16)