WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:34.020 [no audio content] 2 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:38.320 [jet engine] 3 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:57.420 [ambient sounds] 4 00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:33.000 [no audio content] 5 00:01:33.020 --> 00:01:37.120 [Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson] Understanding how much snow is falling is important for many different areas 6 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:42.550 including transportation, safety, how much freshwater falls in a stored in snowpack 7 00:01:42.550 --> 00:01:46.740 and is used later for freshwater resources. 8 00:01:46.740 --> 00:01:50.260 [no audio content] 9 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:55.040 [Walt Peterson] The aircraft provide us with direct measurements of particle types and sizes 10 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:58.640 as the aircraft is flying through the clouds. They're actually looking at the 11 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:03.080 individual precipitation particles with probes on the airplanes. And we can 12 00:02:03.080 --> 00:02:06.110 relate those measurements to what we see with the radar on the ground and it 13 00:02:06.110 --> 00:02:10.250 helps us interpret everything about that column of water that the satellite is 14 00:02:10.250 --> 00:02:13.030 going to be looking at. 15 00:02:13.030 --> 00:02:16.660 [no audio content] 16 00:02:16.660 --> 00:02:21.280 [Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson] Measuring precipitation globally is important because it provides a complete 17 00:02:21.290 --> 00:02:26.030 picture of the global water cycle. GPM is going to be able to do that but it's 18 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:30.710 also going to be able to provide the local regional, regional scale. So that we 19 00:02:30.710 --> 00:02:36.890 can get better information for oncoming droughts, potential landslides, potential 20 00:02:36.890 --> 00:02:38.500 floods. 21 00:02:38.500 --> 00:03:06.400 [no audio content] 22 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:12.860 [ambient sounds] 23 00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:21.960 [no audio content] 24 00:03:21.960 --> 00:04:41.520 [ambient sounds] 25 00:04:41.520 --> 00:05:22.240 [no audio content] 26 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:25.600 [Walt Peterson] So the science benefit is that we're going to make these great accurate 27 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:31.060 measurements of precipitation. Essentially GPM will track water that 28 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:36.190 exists in the reservoir in the sky to the reservoir on the grounds. Okay so 29 00:05:36.190 --> 00:05:41.980 that enables to, enables us to basically monitor the water resource as it 30 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:45.340 originates in the atmosphere and falls to the ground. That's a very important 31 00:05:45.340 --> 00:05:49.930 scientific thing to be able to do because that information is used in all 32 00:05:49.930 --> 00:05:53.890 kinds of different applications weather forecasting, climate studies. From a 33 00:05:53.890 --> 00:05:56.800 scientific perspective making those measurements frequently and accurately 34 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.820 is really important. 35 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:02.580 [no audio content] 36 00:06:02.580 --> 00:06:07.380 [Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson] The GPM core with its ability to detect falling snows, it's one of the very first 37 00:06:07.380 --> 00:06:13.380 times that we've put sensors in space to specifically look at falling snow. And 38 00:06:13.380 --> 00:06:17.730 we're we're at that edge where rain was 50 years ago. 39 00:06:17.730 --> 00:06:22.169 So we're, we're still figuring out how to measure snow. Snow is it's much more 40 00:06:22.169 --> 00:06:27.360 difficult than rain. Rain tends to be spherical like drops, but if you've ever 41 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:31.260 been out in a snow fall event and you've looked at your shirt you see that snow 42 00:06:31.260 --> 00:06:36.060 comes in all different forms. And the sensors in space are actually sensitive 43 00:06:36.060 --> 00:06:41.010 to those shapes. And we're still trying to figure out all of that. And the GPM 44 00:06:41.010 --> 00:06:46.470 core with its additional frequencies and information on the sensors is going to 45 00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:50.550 be able to provide us for the first time a lot more information about falling 46 00:06:50.550 --> 00:06:52.790 snow.