Resources

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...

Three Radars are Better than One Putting three radars on a plane to measure rainfall may seem like overkill. But for the Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment field campaign in North Carolina recently, more definitely was better. During the field campaign, NASA's ER-2 research aircraft flew out of Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. HIWRAP is under the wing in the black compartment; the Cloud Radar System is under the other wing and is not visible; and the EXRAD radar is in the extended nose cone. Image Credit: NASA / Gerry Heymsfield The three instruments, developed by the High...

NASA's airborne Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3 mission, will revisit the Atlantic Ocean for the third year in a row. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Ryan Fitzgibbons Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio During this year's Atlantic hurricane season, NASA is redoubling its efforts to probe the inner workings of hurricanes and tropical storms with two unmanned Global Hawk aircraft flying over storms and two new space-based missions. NASA's airborne Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3 mission, will revisit the...

For the past three years, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory has gone from components and assembly drawings to a fully functioning satellite at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The satellite has now arrived in Japan, where it will lift off in early 2014. The journey to the launch pad has been a long and painstaking process. It began with the most basic assembly of the satellite's frame and electrical system, continued through the integration of its two science instruments, and has now culminated in the completion of a dizzying array of environmental...

Arthur Hou, the project scientist for the upcoming Global Precipitation Measurement mission, died at home Nov. 20 from pancreatic cancer, which he had battled for more than a year. Dr. Arthur Hou, the project scientist for the upcoming Global Precipitation Measurement, or GPM, mission, died Nov. 20, 2013. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center “Arthur was an exemplary project scientist who kept the GPM flame alive during the various challenges as the project was being formulated and developed,” said Nick White, director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA’s Goddard...

The GPM Core Observatory has left NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and embarked upon its long journey to Japan where it will launch in early 2014. Science writer Ellen Gray and producer Michael Starobin are travelling along with the spacecraft and documenting its trip with photos, videos, and blog posts. Keep checking this page to stay updated on GPM's journey to launch. " GPM in Japan, the Road to Launch" Blog Posts GPM Doing Well, Time to Color in the Eyes - March 2nd, 2014 Safe Journey, GPM! - February 27th, 2014 Clear Skies for GPM's Launch - February 26th, 2014 Blessings for a Safe and...

An international satellite that will set a new standard for global precipitation measurements from space has completed a 7,300-mile journey from the United States to Japan, where it now will undergo launch preparations. A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport, about 600 miles southwest of Tokyo, at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 23. A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport in Japan at...

Super typhoon Haiyan, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane on the US Saffir-Simpson scale, struck the central Philippines municipality of Guiuan at the southern tip of the province of Eastern Samar early Friday morning at 20:45 UTC (4:45 am local time) as an extremely powerful super typhoon, perhaps the strongest ever recorded at landfall, with sustained winds estimated at 195 mph (315 kph) by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Previously, Hurricane Camille, which struck the northern Gulf Coast in 1969, held the record with 190 mph sustained winds at landfall. After striking Samar, Haiyan...