Applications

GPM Overpass of Tropical Storm Franklin on Aug. 29 2023
After becoming a tropical storm in the east-central Caribbean on the afternoon of Aug. 20 and moving generally westward for two days, Tropical Storm Franklin took a northward track and struck the southern coast of the Dominican Republic south of Barahona on the morning of Aug. 23 as a moderate tropical storm with sustained winds reported at 50 mph by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Franklin brought heavy rains and flooding to the area, resulting in landslides, power outages and at least 2 fatalities in the Dominican Republic according to media reports . After traversing the mountainous
IMERG rainfall totals from Hurricane Hilary.
Hurricane Hilary is being hailed as a historic storm after becoming the first tropical storm to hit California since Sept. 24, 1939. The storm has had a large impact on the region - in addition to gusty winds, Hilary’s rains have resulted in widespread flooding, landslides, washed out roads and numerous other closures. Like most East Pacific tropical cyclones, Hilary originated from a westward propagating tropical wave that crossed over Central America from the western Caribbean into the eastern Pacific. Known as “African easterly waves”, these are the same waves that emerge off the coast of
GPM Overpass of Typhoon Khanun
The Northwest Pacific typhoon season has been quite active recently. Following in the wake of Super Typhoon Doksuri, which skirted the northern tip of Luzon July 25 and 26 and continued on to bring extreme rainfall to southeast coast of China, is yet another powerful storm - Typhoon Khanun. Khanun (known as “Falcon” in the Philippines) began in the West Pacific Ocean as an area of disturbed weather on July 24 situated well south of Guam and east of Palau. Over the next several days the system slowly intensified as it tracked northwestward towards the Ryuku Islands of southern Japan, becoming a
GPM Overpass of Hurricane Calvin on July 14
After a quiet start, the 2023 eastern Pacific hurricane season recently picked up in activity with the formation of the season’s first major hurricane, Hurricane Calvin. Calvin originated on July 11 from an area of low pressure located about 510 miles (~820 km) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, which had become organized enough for the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to declare it Tropical Depression 3E (TD 3E) that afternoon. Located over warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of around 84 oF (29 oC), thunderstorm activity near the center of TD 3E continued to increase overnight, and
IMERG rainfall totals from Cyclone Freddy
Tropical Cyclone Freddy first made landfall along the east coast of Madagascar just north of the town of Mananjary on Feb. 21, 2023, as a Category 3 cyclone with average winds reported at ~81 mph (130 km/h) and gusts up to ~112 mph (180 km/h). After crossing over Madagascar Freddy continued westward over the Mozambique Channel before making landfall again along the east coast of Mozambique just south of Vilankulos as a moderate tropical storm with sustained winds estimated at 50 mph. Despite being weaker at landfall, Freddy caused widespread flooding across parts of Mozambique due to the storm stalling out near the coast after making landfall. Incredibly, Freddy drifted back out over the Mozambique Channel, nearly making landfall along the southwest coast of Madagascar. It then changed direction, re-intensified, weakened, re-intensified one last time, and made landfall once again on March 11 near Quelimane, Mozambique, as a Category 1 cyclone with sustained winds reported at 90 mph.
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The second edition of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) Mentorship program is now open for registration. Limited seats are available.
IMERG Precipitation Anomalies
Rain gauges are plentiful around the United States, but that’s not the case elsewhere in the world – particularly over oceans and sparsely populated areas. That means scientists and other data users have to rely on satellite measurements – such as those provided by NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission – to fill in the gaps. The list of data users now includes the U.S. Air Force’s 557th Weather Wing. For the first time, the Air Force meteorology unit has integrated the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) algorithm into its operational weather forecasts and
GPM overpass of tropical storm Nicole
Hurricane Nicole hit the East Coast of Florida early yesterday morning, November 10 th , 2022, at 3:00 am (EST) just south of Vero Beach at North Hutchinson Island. But, unlike Hurricane Ian which came ashore in late September as a powerful Category 4 storm that devasted parts of southwest Florida, Nicole made landfall as minimal Category 1 storm. Though far less intense, Nicole has still brought some heavy rain and gusty winds to the region. Nicole originated from a non-tropical low pressure system over the southwestern Atlantic. As a result, when the National Hurricane Center (NHC) was first
Screenshot of mentors and participants (mentees) during the last session of the 2022 Mentorship Program.
The GPM Applications Team in collaboration with the University of Coimbra created the GPM Mentorship Program to support new users from established and underrepresented communities and provide tailored hands-on learning experiences in using GPM data for applications . The goal of the program is to provide an overview of using state-of-the-art satellite-based precipitation estimates, and to provide users their first experience of applying GPM data to support real-world problems. The 2022 initiative is the first edition of the mentorship program.
IMERG analysis of Hurricane Ian
On Sept. 30, 2022, Hurricane Ian was approaching South Carolina, which was one day after Ian finished its west-to-east crossing of Florida. NASA has been estimating Hurricane Ian's precipitation over land and ocean, which complements the array of detailed observations collected by NOAA and other agencies of Ian's impact over land.