Core Observatory Passes Centrifuge Stress Testing

The GPM Core Observatory structure successfully completed proof testing in the centrifuge facility at Goddard Space Flight Center. The satellite was tested at several different angles to simulate the increased feeling of gravity’s pull on the satellite during launch. Goddard's centrifuge can accelerate 2.5 tons to speeds so high that the payload experiences forces 30 times greater than the pull of Earth's gravity. The GPM Core Observatory undergoing centrifuge testing at Goddard Space Flight Center.

TRMM Sees Developing Western Pacific Tropical Cyclone

The TRMM satellite flew over newly designated tropical depression 08W in the western Pacific Ocean on 11 July 2011 at 0637 UTC. The rainfall analysis on the left above, derived from TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data, shows that numerous convective thunderstorms were dropping moderate to heavy rainfall over a large area of the Pacific Ocean near 18.1N 157.3E. The Naval Maritime Forecast Center Pearl Harbor, HI (NMFC-PH) predicts that 08W will become a typhoon over the open waters of the Pacific with 65kt (~75 mph) winds by 13 July 2011. The 3-D display above uses PR