Instagram: Why Do Raindrop Sizes Matter In Storms?

  • Released Thursday, March 31st, 2016
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:48PM
  • ID: 12185

Not all raindrops are created equal. The size of falling raindrops depends on several factors, including where the cloud producing the drops is located on the globe and where the drops originate in the cloud. For the first time, scientists have three-dimensional snapshots of raindrops and snowflakes around the world from space, thanks to the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. With the new global data on raindrop and snowflake sizes this mission provides, scientists can improve rainfall estimates from satellite data and in numerical weather forecast models, helping us better understand and prepare for extreme weather events.

For More Information



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Music credit: Dusk On The Plains by B. Boston


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series: