With the launch of their latest weather observation satellite, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are preparing to ramp up their capabilities of gathering precise information about global precipitation.
As concerns over global warming and climate change continue to grow, scientists are increasingly in need of more accurate information about the weather. To address this growing need, a joint project between NASA and JAXA was started with the intent of gathering accurate measurements of snow and rain from around the globe. On Feb. 27, the joint NASA-JAXA team launched their Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory into space. The new satellite was successfully launched at 12:37 a.m. on Thursday in Japan.
"With this launch, we have taken another giant leap in providing the world with an unprecedented picture of our planet's rain and snow," said Charles Bolden, a NASA administrator. "GPM will help us better understand our ever-changing climate, improve forecasts of extreme weather events like floods, and assist decision makers around the world to better manage water resources."
The four-ton observatory was launched at the Tanegashima Space Center in Southern Japan. With its built in sensors, the GPM will be able to beef up both agencies' capabilities of measuring tropical rainfall near the equator as well as snow fall levels in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
"It is incredibly exciting to see this spacecraft launch," said GPM Project Manager Art Azarbarzin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This is the moment that the GPM team has been working toward since 2006. The GPM Core Observatory is the product of a dedicated team at Goddard, JAXA and others worldwide. Soon, as GPM begins to collect precipitation observations, we'll see these instruments at work providing real-time information for the scientists about the intensification of storms, rainfall in remote areas and so much more."
To carry out its important mission, the GPM is quipped with two main instruments to measure precipitation such as rain and snow. The first instrument, known as the GPM Microwave Imager, was built under the auspices of NASA. This imaging instrument will be able to measure the intensity of precipitation by gathering data about small amounts of energy given off during rainfall and snowfall. The second instrument, which was provided by the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communication Technology and JAXA, uses radar to take measurements of rainfall. The Japanese made instrument has the capability of taking 3D measurements of the intensity and structure of rainfall.
"The JPL team has a long history of developing precipitation radar systems and processing techniques and assisted in defining the initial GPM mission concept," said JPL's Joe Turk, who is also a member of the GPM science team. "Our team is also helping define the concept and advanced precipitation/cloud radar instrument for GPM's planned follow-on mission. We look forward to the more complete and accurate picture of global precipitation that GPM will enable."
