How Tiny Satellites Can Help Us Weather Through Hurricanes | Dr. Kerri Cahoy | TEDxBocaRaton

Shoebox-sized satellites called CubeSats can help us better predict the path of severe storms and stay connected to each other before, during, and after landfall. CubeSat systems can generally accomplish the same functions as much larger and more expensive satellites. This means that we can launch a lot of them for a reasonable cost, which we cannot do for larger satellites. Kerri Cahoy is an Associate Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kerri leads the Space Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation (STAR) Laboratory, and design, builds, launches, and operates shoebox-sized satellites called CubeSats. Kerri works with CubeSats to improve hurricane tracking using an instrument called a microwave radiometer. Her team flies miniature microwave radiometers on CubeSats and has shown that they work as well as larger and more expensive satellites with the Microsized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (MicroMAS-2A). The next step is to go from only having one CubeSat in orbit to several, so that they can fly over the same location more often, like every fifteen minutes instead of only two or three times a day. Kerri has a Ph.D. and master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx