Ellen Gray

GPM Completes Vibration Tests

The GPM Core satellite successfully completed vibration testing in July 2013, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The tests ensure that the spacecraft can withstand the vibrations caused by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-IIA rocket during satellite’s launch early in 2014. Sitting on a specialized mobile platform, the GPM spacecraft was abruptly moved back and forth in each of its three spatial orientations. GPM attached to the shaker table for horizontal vibration testing. Credit: Warren Shultzaberger / NASA
IFloodS Observes Severe Storm Outbreak
Development of low storm clouds in the atmospheric mixing layer over the NPOL and D3R radars on June 12, 2013 at ~12:00 p.m. CDT. Credit: Walt Petersen /NASA . On Wednesday afternoon, June 12, a severe storm outbreak developed and moved across central and eastern Iowa, and then western Illinois, spawning huge thunderstorms and several tornadoes. NASA's Polarimetric (NPOL) precipitation radar, currently deployed in Iowa as part of the Iowa Flood Studies field campaign for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, rapidly scanned these storms as they moved across the state. NPOL capturing...
PMM Article iFloods Banner
By Ellen Gray, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Feature (published 4/30/13) Ground data now being collected in northeastern Iowa by the Iowa Flood Studies experiment will evaluate how well NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission satellite rainfall data can be used for flood forecasting. GPM is an international satellite mission that will set a new standard for precipitation measurements from space, providing worldwide estimates of precipitation approximately every three hours. The GPM Core Observatory, provided by NASA and mission partner the Japan Aerospace...
GPM Core Observatory in space with constellation satellites in background.
By Ellen Gray, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Feature (published 4/12/13) This video, "Our Wet Wide World", provides an overview of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission and its goals. Video Credit: Ryan Fitzgibbons As anyone who has ever been caught in a sudden and unexpected downpour knows, gaps still exist in our knowledge about the behavior and movement of precipitation, clouds and storms. An upcoming satellite mission from NASA and the Japanese Space Agency aims to fill in those gaps both in coverage and in scientists' understanding of precipitation. The...
Thumbnail for "For GOod Measure"
This page will automatically redirect you to the video "For Good Measure" on the Precipitation Education section of this site. If you are not redirected, click here
CoCoRaHs Raingauge before storm
By Ellen Gray , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Press Release (published 2/6/13) NASA and the Community, Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) run by Colorado State University, Fort Collins, invite the public to participate in a free webinar to promote citizen science that involves rain and snow measurements across the United States. CoCoRaHS rain gauge after a storm. Image Credit: Henry Reges / CoCoRaHS HQ CoCoRaHS is a citizen scientist network with more than 16,000 volunteers nationwide that encourages volunteers of all ages to record and monitor...

GPM Completes Thermal Vacuum Testing

The GPM Core Observatory is lifted out of the Thermal Vacuum Chamber at NASA Goddard. Video Credit: Ryan Fitzgibbons (ambient audio only) The GPM Core Observatory completed thermal vacuum testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. on Jan. 16, 2013. After twelve days to carefully remove the testing equipment, stow the High Gain Antenna and GPM Microwave Imager, and lift the spacecraft out of the thermal vacuum test chamber, the spacecraft was moved back to the clean room on Jan. 28. Preparing the GPM Core Observatory to be removed from the thermal vacuum chamber. Beginning

GPM Continues Environmental Testing

The GPM Core spacecraft has completed hot and cold thermal balance testing in the thermal vacuum chamber at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Next it will undergo hot and cold cycle thermal vacuum testing, where the temperatures are alternatively raised to 104°F (40 degrees C) and lowered to 7°F (-14 degrees C) over the course of the next few weeks. Thermal vacuum testing is part of GPM's environmental test program to ensure that the satellite is ready for the harsh conditions of space and will continue into mid-January. See a video of the GPM Core Observatory entering the thermal vacuum
TRMM reign of rain screenshot
By Ellen Gray , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Original www.nasa.gov Article (published 11/27/12) When it rains it pours, goes the saying, and for the last 15 years, the data on tropical rainfall have poured in. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was launched on Nov. 27, 1997, and for the last decade and a half has enabled precipitation science that has had far reaching applications across the globe. TRMM Project Scientist Scott Braun looks back at the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and a few of the major scientific milestones the satellite has helped...

Core Observatory Enters TVAC Chamber

(ambient audio only) On Tuesday Nov. 13, 2012, the GPM observatory moved from the clean room to the thermal vacuum chamber. The spacecraft, wrapped in protective blankets, made the short trip by crane across the testing facility where it was then lowered into the 40-foot test chamber. On Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Core Observatory began thermal vacuum testing at NASA's Goddard Space flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Thermal vacuum testing is part of GPM's environmental test program to ensure that the satellite is ready for the harsh conditions of