Though scientists are able to detect hurricanes from far off and gauge their intensity, but determining other factors that could cause damage has not always been possible.
According to Discovery News, NASA plans to launch a group of satellites called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) to help track storm data and update ground teams on their progress.
"It used to be that we always looked for the mechanisms that allow hurricanes to rapidly intensify, but as of late, the question has gotten flipped around," Scott Braun, research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a press release. "Now we ask what are the factors that prevent a hurricane from intensifying."
CYGNSS will orbit the Earth from about 317 miles overhead and will deliver data on factors like a hurricane's wind speed, which can determine if there is a flood risk associated with the storm. The satellites were also designed to be able to communicate through extreme weather. NASA plans to launch CYGNSS next year.
"Being able to see through rain, and being able to see often are the two primary objectives that the whole CYGNSS mission was built around," lead researcher Chris Ruf, with the University of Michigan, told Discovery News. "The Hurricane Hunters don't get out into the central Atlantic, and they also don't fly in the Pacific at all.
"There's a lot of interest by the U.S. Navy and also by the Japanese weather service in the CYGNSS data for typhoon warning stuff because there is none of the Hurricane Hunter infrastructure around the Pacific."
