The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission consists of eight micro-satellites in low Earth orbit, which can measure ocean surface roughness and the corresponding wind speed in the eyewall of tropical storms and hurricanes to track the intensity of these storms in real time.
Although designed for monitoring storms over the ocean, CYGNSS also generates data when over land. Within MiXIL, we are currently investigating the retrieval of soil moisture content and other geophysical parameters as a member of the CYGNSS Science Team under an award from NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES).