On Saturday, March 8, just after 10 a.m. EST, the second of the two science instruments aboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory was activated, and the teams in the mission operations center and launch support room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., began the instrument's checkout period. DPR functional checkout activities and internal calibrations continued on Sunday and will continue this week and next. DPR data is being sent through the Precipitation Processing System at Goddard to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. The initial checkout of the GMI instrument and the spacecraft showed both are performing as expected, and the GMI instrument continues to collect science data on rain and snowfall.

Images are routinely produced using TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) data which show the global area covered by the satellite. These "Quick Look" images use Microwave brightness temperatures at 85.5 GHZ and at 37.0 GHZ combined in the red, green and blue components (guns) of the images. These false color images can be used to distinguish land from water and show the differences between land surfaces such as deserts, snow cover and sea ice. On these images areas of dry atmosphere over water appear as blue and moist atmosphere is dark blue. Snow cover over land appears as white or grey, deserts are

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. The GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) continues in science mode, and GMI data is being sent to the Precipitation Processing System (PPS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Using the initial data, the instrument team has verified that GMI is working well on-orbit. The GPM Core Observatory will have a 60 day on-orbit check out period to ensure the healthy operation of the spacecraft and instruments. Precipitation data will be released from the PPS no later than 6 months post-launch, after the

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.