INCUS
| Mission type | Weather |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| Website | https://incus.colostate.edu/ |
INCUS is a future mission by NASA to study why convective storms,[1][2][3] heavy precipitation, and clouds occur exactly when and where they form.[2][4]
Overview
[edit]The spacecraft is 3 CubeSats funded and developed by NASA & JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) alongside Colorado State University and NOAA.[5] It is one of NASA's Earth Ventures Missions (EVM-3).[6] Its main goal is to enhance our understanding of why, when & where tropical convective storms form, to measure vertical air motion and why only a few storms produce extreme weather.[7] It will be launched by Firefly Aerospace.[8] It is a Class-D mission.[7]
Instruments
[edit]It will have Ka rain radars and a MW radiometer.[9]
Budget
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "NASA Awards Launch Service for Mission to Study Storm Formation - NASA". Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- 1 2 "INCUS". incus.colostate.edu. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- 1 2 Taft, Rick (2024-05-14). "CSU-led satellite mission to study extreme weather moves into construction phase". Department of Atmospheric Science | Colorado State University. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "INCUS - NASA Science". 2023-06-15. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "INCUS (INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS) - eoPortal". www.eoportal.org. Archived from the original on 2024-10-09. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "ESSP". 2022-07-26. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- 1 2 van den Heever, Susan; Haddad, Ziad; Tanelli, Simone; Stephens, Graeme; Posselt, Derek; Kim, Yunjin; Brown, Shannon; Braun, Scott; Grant, Leah; Kollias, Pavlos; Luo, Zhengzhao Johnny; Mace, Gerald; Marinescu, Peter; Padmanabhan, Sharmila; Partain, Philip (May 2022). "The INCUS Mission". EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts: EGU22–9021. doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9021.
- ↑ "INCUS". Firefly Aerospace. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
- ↑ "WMO OSCAR Details for Satellite Programme: INCUS". space-test.oscar.wmo.int. Retrieved 2026-03-19.