Following activation and warm up of the Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GMI) electronic systems, the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., deployed the main reflector of the U.S. science instrument for the GPM Core Observatory.

A significant step was also achieved today in the activation of the science instrument provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with the turning on of the controller for the Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR).

The DPR will provide three-dimensional information about precipitation particles derived from reflected energy by these particles at different heights within the cloud system. The two frequencies of the DPR also allow the radar to infer the sizes of precipitation particles and offer insights into a storm’s physical characteristics.