Tropical storm FAXAI meandered in a area southeast of Guam for the past few days and is now predicted to move toward the north passing well to the east of Guam. The TRMM satellite had a good daytime view of the tropical storm on March 2, 2247 UTC. TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data revealed that FAXAI had heavy rain falling at a rate of over 89 mm/hr (~3.5 inches). A few rainshowers from FAXAI are shown affecting GUAM.

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. Today, the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument started to spin at its normal rate and collect science data on rain and snowfall. The GMI instrument is a multi-channel microwave radiometer that uses 13 channels to measure the intensity of the microwave energy emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere. GMI will detect total precipitation within all layers of clouds, including snow and ice, and rain from drizzles to downpours.

Today, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory successfully fired its thrusters for five seconds to check out the thruster performance. This type of maneuver, called a delta-V, changes the velocity of the spacecraft to adjust the altitude of its orbit. Today's delta-V resulted in only a very slight change in the orbit, but will help the GPM team assess and calibrate the thruster performance. By contrast, yesterday the team pulsed each maneuvering thruster 3-6 times, but for only 100 milliseconds each time. This was long enough to make sure the thrusters were working, but

Following yesterday’s activities with the two science instruments associated with the Global Precipitation Measurement core observatory, the flight control team’s attention today is focused on the observatory’s onboard maneuvering thrusters. The satellite has a dozen thrusters: four forward and eight aft. The flight team is activating and initializing the thrusters over the course of today. A brief (5 second) propulsion burn to further calibrate the thrusters is planned for early this week. GPM’s propulsion system has two functions. First, to adjust its orbit and maintain altitude, and second

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