The GPM Core Observatory satellite was successfully launched on February 27th, 2014. Data from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) have the following release schedule. All data are freely available through the NASA's Precipitation Processing System at http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov June 16th – GMI Level 1 Brightness Temperature data have been released. This includes GMI instrument swath data. July 14th – GMI Level 2 Precipitation Rate data will be released. This includes precipitation rates estimated using the Goddard Profiling algorithm (GPROF14) and are

Over the past seven days stormy weather has spawned tornadoes and dropped extremely heavy rainfall in the Northern Plains and the Great Lakes states. This deluge has caused flooding in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinios. There have been concerns about the Mississippi, Big Sioux and Rock River Rivers escaping their banks. For more than sixteen years rainfall has been monitored by the TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) . These products have been developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center by the precipitation research team. (TMPA)

The first set of data from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission is now available to the public. The data set consists of GPM Microwave Imager instrument observations, called brightness temperatures. Brightness temperatures are a measurement of naturally occurring energy radiated, in this case, by precipitation particles like raindrops or snowflakes. Other data sets, like the rain rate information, will be released later this summer. By themselves, however, the brightness temperatures convey valuable data on the location and structure of storm systems – including tropical cyclones and

Tornadoes killed two people yesterday in Pilger, Nebraska. Tornadoes were reported with violent weather that also hit the states of North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Heavy rainfall with this extreme weather was monitored with the TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. An analysis of TMPA rainfall totals is shown here for the seven days from June 10-17, 2014. This analysis indicated that the highest rainfall totals for the period (light purple) were greater than 300 mm (about 11.8 inches) in northwestern Iowa. Locations

Tropical storm NANUAK formed west of India on June 10, 2014 and since then has been moving toward the northwest over the open waters of the Arabian Sea. The TRMM satellite found that NANAUK contained powerful storms dropping rain at a rate of over 247.3 mm/hr (about 9.7 inches) when viewed on June 11, 2014 at 1549 UTC. An analysis of rainfall from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) is shown above overlaid on a 1530 UTC enhanced infrared image from the METEOSAT-7 satellite. TRMM PR data were used in the 3-D view shown in the second image. Those data showed that NANAUK