Nasa's www site show  TROPICS's images from Hurricane Erin measured in August '25 It quotes "The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) mission is a constellation of small satellites designed to monitor global precipitation events on a much more frequent basis than what large single satellites can do. It is a short term demonstration mission supporting the concept of high cadence small CubeSat weather observations. These small satellites can be much more cost effective than their much larger counterparts, and launching many of them can provide more frequent coverage"

...has arrived in TK - via a  rather tortuous process to move it though our clean room, but has halved the surface roughness we can obtain on wire spark erosion - down to 0.2 mm Ra in Aluminium: very important in setting the ohmic losses found in our mm-wave waveguides.

TK designed and built  - for AIRBUS in Germany -  the feed optics and multiplexer as well as the transmitted power monitoring of JAXA's 94 GHz Doppler radar now flying on the EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission - well over a decade ago. The hardware is now, at last, in polar orbit. And NiCT/JAXA have now released "First-Light" images of the Dopplar radar in action The sample cloud was observed over the Pacific Ocean, just east of Japan, on 13 June 2024. The BBC's Jonathan Amos published a useful article on the need for these measurements and JAXA's Youtube video can be seen here, TK design and made, along with the mutiplexer, the secondary mirror seen abo...

NASA has kindly provided a nice visual display of TROPICS constellation moving over the earth  - TK made the TROPICS antennas. Worth a look at this fun NASA site with TROPICS 5 featured below   along with a newer link   tracking Hurricane Erin from August 10 through to August 20, 2025.    

Based on a contract initially signed on the 9th September 2015, TK has shipped out to AIRBUS in Portsmouth thelast piece of MetOP-SG hardware - a spare MicroWaves Sounder On-Board Calibration Target. Thanks to all of our colleagues - both current and past - in both TK, Atkins, Cardiff University and our customersin AIRBUS UK and Spain - as well as in ESA  - for coping with the ups and sometimes downs of such a challenging and rewarding set of projects. the OBCT being packed up in TK's TVAC clean room after final PRT calibration.      

Another two TROPICS radiometers were launched on the  26th May - details are here  - and the Youtube video here and are - to quote - the PI, Bill Blackwell ....."all four are working great!"  At  2 am  BST, Monday 8th May 2023,  the New Zealand launch of two TROPICS radiometers puts TK designed, made and tested antennas into orbit to observe hurricanes. Rocket Labs' Electron engine powers the initial part of the launch:   Credit:Rocket Labs Click here to watch the launch on YouTube - and a splendid Drone video here ....the 100mm cube tri-band antennas use a polarizing grid to combine co-aligned beams covering atmospheric rotation lines of water and oxygen: ...