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After 17 years of groundbreaking 3-D images of rain and storms, the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) will come to an end next year. NASA predicts that science operations will cease in or about April 2015, based on the most recent analysis by mission operations at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. Artist concept of TRMM in space over the eye of a tropical cyclone. Image Credit: NASA On July 8, 2014, pressure readings from the fuel tank indicated that TRMM was near the end of its fuel supply. As a result, NASA...

Download in Hi-Res from the Scientific Visualization Studio On October 16th, 2014 (1342 UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory flew over Hurricane Gonzalo as it headed towards Bermuda. Hurricane Gonzalo remains a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with maximum sustained winds at 130 mph. As of 12:00 UTC (8:00a.m. EDT) on Friday, October 17th, the National Hurricane Center forecast located the storm about 195 miles south southwest of Bermuda, where a hurricane warning is in effect. The GPM Core Observatory carries two instruments that...

Animation revealing a swath of GPM/GMI precipitation rates over Typhoon Phanfone. The camera then moves down closer to the storm to reveal DPR's volumetric view of Phanphone. A slicing plane dissects the Typhoon from south to north and back again, revealing it's inner precipitation rates. Shades of blue indicate frozen precipitation (in the upper atmosphere). Shades of green to red are liquid precipitation which extend down to the ground. Download in Hi-Res from the Scientific Visualization Studio On October 6, 2014 (0215 UTC) the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core...

Hurricane Simon appeared to be keeping a secret before it rapidly intensified on Oct. 4, but the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM satellite was able uncover it. On Oct. 4 at 0940 UTC (5:40 a.m. EDT) observations by the Ku-band radar on the GPM satellite suggested that the Eastern Pacific Ocean's Hurricane Simon was hiding a very compact eyewall hours before the National Hurricane Center detected rapid intensification of Simon's surface winds. The GPM satellite was launched in February of this year and is managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. On Oct. 4 at 0940...

On September 26, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite flew over an extra-tropical cyclone whose center was approaching Norway. The Norwegian weather service reported that this storm brought gale-force winds to parts of Norway's coast and mountains (20 m/s in the mountains and 50 m/s just off-coast, late at night on September 26). Extra-tropical cyclones this strong or stronger are a regular feature of northern European winters. The particularly damaging ones are called "windstorms." Borrowing a page from hurricane forecasters, some weather agencies in affected countries name...