Designing the MetNet-1: A Small Satellite for Responsive Weather Measurements

The MetNet™-1 network is being designed to provide responsive weather measurements with a constellation of 3U satellites. We present the design and performance modeling to show how it will complement current infrastructure and provide benefits including overall cost, development times, increased network flexibility, redundancy, revisit times, and especially operational responsiveness. The specific data we are targeting is cloud, fog, precipitation and aerosol imagery, with ocean color as a secondary target. To these ends, we are designing the sensor to generate as similar imagery as possible to the MODIS sensor on the NASA TERRA satellite. This will allow the data to be quickly compared to existing MODIS results and analyzed with the same techniques, which will speed the adoption of the constellation data. The sensor will have four cameras, a visible (VIS), a short-wave infrared (SWIR), a mid-wave infrared (MWIR), and a long-wave infrared (LWIR) covering the 400-nm to 14-micron wavelength range. Each camera will have a striped bandpass filter to create images at the same spectral bands as MODIS. We are planning to have at least 32 of the MODIS bands replicated on this sensor. This study will present initial modeling of the sensor in terms of optical performance, spectral parameters, and SNR, and present the intended data products and data compression, transmission dissemination network, and how this constellation relates to other constellations in the MetNet™ network.