Earth  ID: 11431

The Data Downpour

Released on January 28, 2014
In a data-processing room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., racks of high-powered computers are getting ready to make a map. It's not the familiar satellite map of farms, forests and cities. Instead, this map will show what's hovering above the ground — snowfall and rainfall. The data will come from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, an international partnership led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The GPM Core Observatory will launch in early 2014, but the mission goes beyond data gathering data from one satellite. Eleven spacecraft from U.S. agencies and other countries, all carrying similar instruments to measure rainfall, will contribute data to this global rain map. Compiling observations from these eleven sources into one unified global data set is the job of the Precipitation Processing System at Goddard.
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A video describing how the GPM constellation turns observed radiances and reflectivities of global precipitation into data products.

For complete transcript, click here.

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Animation showing the international ground stations feeding the Precipitation Processing System at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Credits

Walt Feimer (HTSI): Lead Animator
Chris Meaney (HTSI): Animator
Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Animator
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Animator
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Ernie Wright (USRA): Animator
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Video Editor
Erich Stocker (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
George Huffman (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Rob Gutro (NASA/GSFC): Narrator
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Producer
Arthur Hou Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Dalia B Kirschbaum (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Gail Skofronick Jackson (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Writer
Ellen T. Gray (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11431

Missions:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
TDRS

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Goddard TV Tape:
G2014-001 -- GPM: The Data Downpour

Keywords:
SVS >> GPM
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation
SVS >> TDRS
DLESE >> Narrated
SVS >> White Sands
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> JAXA

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0