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GPM Supports the IMPACTS Airborne Campaign to Study Snowfall

MODIS imagery of the snowstorm in Jan. 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Storms ( IMPACTS) mission, now in its second year, is flying aircraft into snowstorms in order to improve meteorological models and our ability to use satellite data to predict how much snow will fall and where. NASA and its partners have several satellites that measure precipitation from space, such as the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission that observes rain and snow around most of the world every three hours. “But satellites can’t tell us a lot about the particles – the actual snowflakes ­– and
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IMERG Sees Winter Precipitation Impact the U.S.

IMERG Sees Winter Storms Impact the Southern U.S.
Friday, February 19, 2021
In mid-February 2021, large areas of the Continental United States experienced extreme cold temperatures as a result of a strong Arctic high pressure system. The cold temperatures were accompanied by several pulses of precipitation over the Southeast US through the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Pacific Northwest. The combination of cold temperatures and precipitation resulted in widespread power outages to millions of people in Texas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Oregon, among other states.
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GPM Views Southeast Snowstorm

GPM Views Southeast Snowstorm
On February 20th and 21st, 2020, a winter storm brought the seasons largest snowfall to much of North Carolina and southern Virginia. The highest snow totals of 3-5 inches (7-12 cm) were located in northeast NC and southeast VA. GPM's radar captured captured the reflectivities shown in this cross-section as it flew over the snow storm on February 20th, with snow and frozen precipitation shown in blue and purple and rain shown in green and yellow. The melting layer marks the transition from snow to rain and slopes upward 2-3 km from central NC to the coast. These raw reflectivity measurements

GPM Sees Powerful Winter Storm Grayson

GPM Sees Powerful Winter Storm Grayson
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Powerful Coastal Storm Brings Snow, Extreme Cold, Wind and Blizzard Conditions to the East Coast View an interactive 3D visualization of GPM data from Winter Storm Grayson in STORM Event Viewer Mobile version Cold Artic air has been keeping the vast majority of the country east of the Rockies in the deep freeze over the past week. Now a powerful coastal storm is working its way up the East Coast bringing a mixture of snow, freezing rain, high winds and blizzard conditions from as far south as Florida all the way up into Maine with blizzard warnings in effect along the coast from North Carolina...
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Early Spring Storm Brings Snow to Parts of Colorado, Midwest

Early Spring Storm Brings Snow to Parts of Colorado, Midwest
A strong, upper-level trough that dropped down into the Central Rockies in the middle of last week produced an early spring storm (also referred to as Winter Storm Selene) that dumped heavy snow on the order of a foot or more in a short period of time along the Front Range of Colorado from near Colorado Springs northward through Denver and up into southeastern Wyoming. Around 2 feet of snow were reported in places like Aurora and Boulder with some of the highest totals reaching 31 inches. Farther to the north, Cheyenne, Wyoming picked up over 14 inches of snow from the storm. The blizzard

Storm Brings Heavy Precip. to Northeast

Storm Brings Heavy Precipitation to Northeast
Friday, January 22, 2016
UPDATE 1/23/2016 5:00pm ET On January 23, 2016 at 1239 UTC (7:39 AM EST) the GPM core observatory passed above the deadly winter storm that was burying the Northeast under a deep layer of snow. As GPM passed above a band of snow was shown approaching the island of Manhattan. The winter storm was predicted to dump near record snowfall in New York city. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments showed massive amounts of moisture being transported from the Atlantic Ocean over states from New York westward through West Virginia. GPM's Radar instruments...
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GPM Sees Heavy Snow Over New England

Signs of Spring Spring Weather What is spring to you? Spring around the world March 20 - launch of contest
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
At 5:05 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission's Core Observatory flew over the Nor'easter that dumped snow on New England. This satellite image shows the rate of rainfall, with low amounts in green and high in red, and snowfall, in blue to purple. The center of the storm, shown in 3-D, was offshore with far reaching bands of snowfall. More intense snow rates are shown in darker blue, which can be seen on the northern edge of the storm. Visible in the 3-D image of the center of the storm are the snowy tops of the clouds in blue and underneath where it...
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Precipitation Measured from U.S. Winter Storm

Precipitation Measured from U.S. Winter Storm
Freezing rain and snow from a winter storm have caused power outages and deaths from the southeastern to the northeastern United States. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is used to estimate precipitation for much of the globe. TMPA (liquid) precipitation totals (mm) are shown for the week from February 7-14, 2014 when a winter storm was moving through the area. Snow depths can be expected to be 10 to 12 times that for the same amount of rainfall. Liquid precipitation estimates of over 110mm (~4.3 inches) are

The Anatomy of a Raindrop

PMM Article Image
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
When asked to picture the shape of raindrops, many of us will imagine water looking like tears that fall from our eyes, or the stretched out drip from a leaky faucet. This popular misconception is often reinforced in weather imagery associated with predictions and forecasts. Raindrops are actually shaped like the top of a hamburger bun, round on the top and flat on the bottom. A new video from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission explains why. This short video explains how a raindrop falls through the atmosphere and why a more accurate look at raindrops can improve estimates of global...
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