GPM GMI First Light

Go inside an extratropical cyclone with NASA s atmosphere and senses precipitation from storms. || The satellite can detect all types of precipitation, including mixtures of rain and snow (center). || Measurements collected by the satellite can be used to calculate rain rates and snowfall for storms observed around the world.

Eleven days after the Feb. 27 launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, the two instruments aboard took their first joint images of an interesting precipitation event. On March 10, the Core Observatory passed over an extra-tropical cyclone about 1055 miles (1700 kilometers) due east of Japan s 37 GHz horizontally polarized Brightness Temperature swath (depicted in shades of aquamarine) as it cuts across from the top of the image down to the lower right. Japan can be seen in the center left portion of the image. || Print resolution still showing a top down view of GPM rain rate swath as it cuts across from the top center of the image down to the lower right. Red areas indicate heavy rainfall, while yellow and blue indicate less intense rainfall. The upper blue areas indicate falling snow. Japan can be seen in the center left portion of the image. || Print resolution still showing a top down view of GPM rain rate swath as it cuts across from the top center of the image down to the lower right. Red areas indicate heavy rainfall, while yellow and blue indicate less intense rainfall. The upper blue areas indicate falling snow. Japan can be seen in the center left portion of the image. No datestamp is shown in this image. || Print resolution icon used to symbolize liquid and frozen precipitation. || Print resolution icon used to symbolize frozen precipitation (ie, snow). || Print resolution icon used to symbolize rain rates. || Print resolution still showing a top down view of GPM rain rate swath as it cuts across from the top center of the image down to the lower right. Red areas indicate heavy rainfall, while yellow and blue indicate less intense rainfall. The upper blue areas indicate falling snow. Japan can be seen in the center left portion of the image. There is no timestamp with this image.

Credit: JAXAExtratropical cyclone in the Northwest Pacific observed by the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) on board the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory around 13:39Z on March 10th, 2014. || Images and animation from the GPM DPR first light. || Credit: JAXAFirst data visualization of the three-dimensional structure of precipitation collected by the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar aboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission s wider observation path. Red areas indicate heavy rainfall while yellow and blue indicate less intense rainfall. The GPM Core Observatory collects precipitation information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. || Credit: JAXAThe Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar observes rainfall and snowfall that occurs within clouds in three dimensions, across the surface of the Earth and upward into the atmosphere. An extra-tropical cyclone was observed over the northwest Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan on March 10, 2014. The graph on the left shows the extra-tropical storm seen by the DPR as the satellite passed overhead. The x-axis is the east-west longitude and the y-axis is north-south latitude. The colors show the rain rate at sea-level, with more intense rainfall represented by red and lighter precipitation shown in blue. The line from A to B shows the location of the two cross-sections on the right. The two sections on the right show the side-view of the storm from the surface, up into the atmosphere. This shows scientists the distribution of different precipitation types within the storm in three dimensions. The colors show the radar reflectivity, the type of data returned by the DPR instrument that is interpreted by scientists analyzing the data and then used to calculate rain rates. The x-axis shows the distance in kilometers from point A in the lefthand graph. The y-axis shows height above the ocean in kilometers. The top image is the Ku-band radar frequency that is more sensitive to heavy and moderate rainfall. The bottom image is the Ka-band radar frequency that is more sensitive to light rain and snow. The most notable feature of these images is where the height of the heavier precipitation dips to the ocean surface at about 240 kilometers on the x-axis. This indicates a transition from rain on the right (reds and yellows) to falling snow on the left (blues and greens). The GPM Core Observatory collects precipitation information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours.

This color-coded map in Robinson projection displays a progression of changing global surface temperatures anomalies from 1880 through 2013. Higher than normal temperatures are shown in red and lower then normal temperatures are shown in blue.The final frame represents global temperature anomalies averaged from 2009 through 2013. || NASA scientists say 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the warmest years on record.NASA s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. These three primary records use slightly different methods, but overall, their trends show close agreement.Additional commentary on the 2013 temperature anomaly is provided by Dr. James Hansen of Columbia University at: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2014/20140121_Temperature2013.pdfThe GISTEMP analysis website is located at: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ || This color-coded map displays the above progression of changing global surface temperatures anomalies from 1880 through 2013 without the date and colorbar overlays. || Global Temperature Anomalies averaged from 2009 to 2013 in Robinson projection. || Temperature Difference Colorbar || This is the frame matched date overlay that corresponds to the data. || Abbreviated 14 second movie starting from 1950 through 2013 with dates and colorbar applied. || Abbreviated 7 second movie which starts in 1950 and runs through 2013 with dates and colorbar. || This frame set is designed to be used on the Science On a Sphere display. It contains the five-year rolling averages that start with (1880 through 1884) and end with (2009 through 2013). || This 1920 by 1080 pixel frame sequence has each 5 year rolling average beginning with the first data set from 1880-1884 and ending with the last data set from 2009-2014 without any transition frames included.