Storm Tracking

Every year many people and countless dollars worth of property are damaged by tropical storms. These storms come up quickly, with very little warning. People are lucky if they can evacuate their communities fast enough. There is rarely enough time to gather belongings to save them from the storm.

If you've ever seen the movie "Twister", you know how immense the damage is from these storms. Storm chasers, who follow storms in order to track them, risk their lives every time they go out after a storm. Even for storm chasers, however, the storm must touch the ground before they can track it. By that time though, it's often too late.

Can you design a satellite that could warn people about storms earlier? Think about what your satellite must do, what it must look at, and what kind of data it must collect. All of these factors will help you to design a satellite that will help solve the problem described.

If you need some help, click on the hint button.
Once you've decided how your satellite is going to solve this problem, write a description of what your satellite will do in your notebook. When you're finished, click on "continue".
If you would like to go back and see another problem, click on the back button.