Beginning this past weekend, parts of central and northern Italy received several days of heavy rain as an upper-level trough situated over western Europe down through the Iberian Peninsula in conjunction with a persistent area of low pressure at the surface over the northern coast of Africa brought a steady flow of warm, moist, unstable air northeastward across the country from the western Mediterranean. A stationary frontal boundary draped across the northern third of the Italian Peninsula provided the focus for showers and storms in that part of the country. The rains caused flooding in

(ambient audio only) On Tuesday Nov. 13, 2012, the GPM observatory moved from the clean room to the thermal vacuum chamber. The spacecraft, wrapped in protective blankets, made the short trip by crane across the testing facility where it was then lowered into the 40-foot test chamber. On Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Core Observatory began thermal vacuum testing at NASA's Goddard Space flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Thermal vacuum testing is part of GPM's environmental test program to ensure that the satellite is ready for the harsh conditions of