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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 Exits Thermal Vacuum Chamber

Submitted by JacobAdmin on Mon, 02/04/2013

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. 

Hurricane Sandy (2012), the TRMM Satellite, and the Physics of the Hot Towers - Interview on KVMR Radio (audio only)

Submitted by JacobAdmin on Tue, 01/08/2013

Alan Stahler of community radio KVMR in Nevada City, California interviews NASA Goddard's Owen Kelley about hurricane physics, how TRMM measures precipitation, and the TRMM overflight of Hurricane Sandy one day before landfall. The 38-minute-long interview aired on the anniversary of the TRMM satellite's launch.

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

Intensifying Tropical Cyclone Moving Over Samoan Islands

Intensifying Tropical Cyclone Moving Over Samoan Islands
The TRMM satellite passed above an intensifying tropical cyclone in the South Pacific Ocean called Evan on December 11, 2012 at 1759 UTC. Evan is predicted to attain hurricane force winds on December 13, 2012 when it is moving through the Samoan Islands. An analysis of Evan's rainfall from TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) and Microwave Imager (TMI) shows that Evan already had an eye-like structure at the time of this TRMM orbit. Click here To a simulated flyby courtesy of TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) data. TRMM's 3-D Precipitation Radar (PR) data were used to measure the heights of Evan's

Typhoon Bopha's Heavy Rain Over Mindanao

Typhoon Bopha's Heavy Rain Over Mindanao
High winds, flooding and landslides from heavy rains with typhoon Bopha have caused over 300 deaths in the southern Philippines. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite's primary mission is the of measurement of rainfall in the Tropics. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global Tropics. MPA rainfall totals are shown here for the period from November 28 to December 5, 2012 when typhoon Bopha was moving through the southern Philippines. Typhoon Bopha's track is shown
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