Top 5 GPM Educational Resources

On February 27th, 2014, the GPM Core Observatory launched into orbit from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, ushering in a new era of space-borne precipitation measurements. By measuring Earth's rain and snowfall, GPM helps us better understand extreme weather, the changing climate, Earth's water and energy cycles, and more. During its time in orbit, the GPM team has generated a wide variety of educational and outreach materials to help students, teachers, and the public learn about precipitation and Earth science.

In honor of GPM's 5th anniversary, here are five of the most interesting and useful GPM educational resources:

Raindrop Tales: GPM Meets Mizu-Chan

The final printed comic.

In the Spring of 2013 the GPM mission hosted the GPM Anime Challenge, a contest for artists of all ages around the world to develop an anime-themed comic book character to teach students about the mission. The Japanese anime / manga style of art was chosen because the mission is a collaboration between NASA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. At the end of the contest two grand prize winners were selected - "GPM" by Yuki Kiriga, and "Mizu-Chan" by Sabrynne Buchholz. See the full contest results here. 

Once the winners were chosen, the team worked with a local artist to develop a full comic book using the new characters that explores the GPM mission in a fun and educational story. Now the comic is available online for everyone to download and enjoy - click here! 

Dive Into a 360-View of Hurricane Maria

For the first time in 360 degrees, this data visualization takes you inside a hurricane to see precipitation the way GPM sees it. Two days before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the NASA / JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite captured a 3D view of the 2017 storm. At the time Maria was a category 1 hurricane. The 3-D view reveals the processes inside the hurricane that would fuel the storm’s intensification to a category 5 storm within 24 hours.

LEGO Model of Hurricane Irma GPM Precipitation Data

The LEGO Hurricane Irma model on display at the 2018 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

The GPM outreach team used LEGO to recreate a 3D visualization of GPM Dual-frequency PrecipitationRadar (DPR) data from 2017's Hurricane Irma, and now the parts list and instructions are available online for you to build your very own LEGO hurricane.

Living in a Freshwater World

We think of our home planet as the "water planet". As we gaze out in awe at the other planets in our solar system, we know we’re unique in having nearly three-quarters of our planet covered in beautiful water. Life as we know it depends on water for its very survival. 

This interactive lesson will allow you to explore Earth’s freshwater resources. You will learn how NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission is helping us better understand our most valuable natural resource.

Understanding Earth: What's Up With Precipitation?

This educational brochure explores the importance of fresh water to life on Earth and how NASA is monitoring and studying precipitation using satellites like GPM.

Understanding the role of precipitation in Earth’s water cycle and how it interacts with other Earth systems requires a global view that only satellites can give us. The distribution of water throughout the atmosphere and how it moves, changing between its solid, liquid, and gaseous forms, is a powerful vehicle for redistributing Earth’s energy and influences the behavior of the planet’s weather, climate, and other environmental systems.