1 00:00:00,190 --> 00:00:04,180 [ off camera ] “Well everybody is familiar with rain. It literally falls in our backyard. 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:08,180 But much is still unknown about rain and the water cycle and 3 00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:12,190 NASA is getting ready to launch a new satellite that’s going to help explain some of that. 4 00:00:12,210 --> 00:00:16,210 Here to talk about this new satellite is Dr. Michelle Thaller from NASA’s 5 00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:20,220 Goddard Space Flight Center. Thanks for joining us.” [ Thaller ] “Great to be here, thank you.” 6 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:24,400 [ off camera ] “So in a couple of hours NASA’s going to launch a new satellite that’s going to measure 7 00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:28,420 rain and snowfall around the world. What’s so special about this satellite?” 8 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:32,600 [ Thaller ] “That’s right we’re getting ready to launch the core observatory of the Global 9 00:00:32,620 --> 00:00:36,620 Precipitation Measurement mission. And this is actually a joint mission between NASA and 10 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,640 the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA. 11 00:00:40,660 --> 00:00:44,680 And this is actually the flagship of a constellation of nine different spacecraft. 12 00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:48,680 All of these spacecraft are going to be orbiting together returning data and 13 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:52,690 measuring the entire precipitation content of the Earth’s atmosphere. 14 00:00:52,710 --> 00:00:56,710 Every location we’re actually going to have a measurement for every three hours. So wherever 15 00:00:56,730 --> 00:01:00,900 you are on the planet, one of these spacecraft and the whole thing working together will know how much 16 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,910 rain or snow is falling every three hours.” 17 00:01:04,930 --> 00:01:08,920 [ off camera ] “Why do we need to measure precipitation from space?” 18 00:01:08,940 --> 00:01:12,940 [ Thaller ] “Well you know in the United States we’re very used to having weather radar. You can actually sort of turn on the weather 19 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:17,130 broadcast and find out where rain is falling, where snow is falling. These are 20 00:01:17,150 --> 00:01:21,190 ground-based radar systems. And we have pretty good coverage where we live, but 21 00:01:21,210 --> 00:01:25,200 there are actually vast areas of the planet where we don’t have ground-based weather radar. 22 00:01:25,220 --> 00:01:29,220 And so we need to come in from space to get an actual global view. 23 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:33,230 We see here in this visualization where precipitation is falling all over the 24 00:01:33,250 --> 00:01:37,370 planet. And of course everything is connected. One area of the world influences 25 00:01:37,390 --> 00:01:41,560 another. Where it’s dry in one place can influence where rain falls in another 26 00:01:41,580 --> 00:01:45,740 place. So to get a view of the entire system you need to look globally. 27 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,940 And not only weather radar, but think about rain gauges to actually measure how much rain is falling. 28 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,950 If you took every rain gauge on the planet and put them all together, 29 00:01:53,970 --> 00:01:57,960 they would only cover an area about the size of two basketball courts. 30 00:01:57,980 --> 00:02:01,960 So there’s a huge area that we’re missing. We’re actually missing the story 31 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:05,960 of how precipitation works on a global level.” 32 00:02:05,980 --> 00:02:10,110 [ off camera ] “How will GPM improve monitoring for hazards like hurricanes and floods?” 33 00:02:10,130 --> 00:02:14,110 [ Thaller ] “Well you know, one of the things that GPM is going to be able to do 34 00:02:14,130 --> 00:02:18,130 is use instruments that use radar to actually pierce through storms. 35 00:02:18,150 --> 00:02:22,190 So as GPM flies over everyday, radar will be able to look 36 00:02:22,210 --> 00:02:26,220 down and make maps of what’s going on inside storms themselves 37 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:30,400 see where the precipitation is most intense. This is a visualization 38 00:02:30,420 --> 00:02:34,410 of Hurricane Katrina. You’ll notice there are these very high, red towers 39 00:02:34,430 --> 00:02:38,430 inside there. And those are areas where the hurricane is very energetic. 40 00:02:38,450 --> 00:02:42,470 There’s lots of precipitation falling. So we can see how storms change every 41 00:02:42,490 --> 00:02:46,480 three hours and model how they’re going to evolve in the future, 42 00:02:46,500 --> 00:02:50,670 what their paths may be. So GPM is giving us sort of this wonderful x-ray 43 00:02:50,690 --> 00:02:54,680 system to see through storms and produce maps of how they change over time. 44 00:02:54,700 --> 00:02:58,690 That research is going to be key to predicting better how they evolve, 45 00:02:58,710 --> 00:03:02,700 where they’re going to go and how destructive they’re going to be.” 46 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,710 [ off camera ] “Why is it important to, uh, study rain and snowfall in a changing climate?” 47 00:03:06,730 --> 00:03:10,720 [ Thaller ] “Well we definitely know very clearly that the Earth’s 48 00:03:10,740 --> 00:03:14,900 atmosphere is getting warmer. And that’s going to have an effect on precipitation patterns 49 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:18,900 all over the planet. When something warms up it means you’re actually putting energy 50 00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:22,960 in and that mean that there may be more extreme variations. There may be areas 51 00:03:22,980 --> 00:03:26,990 that are dry now that will get dryer and wet that will get wetter. So 52 00:03:27,010 --> 00:03:31,000 extreme events like floods for example, we’re going to be able to see over 53 00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:35,120 time whether certain areas are more prone to flooding. Landslides, 54 00:03:35,140 --> 00:03:39,130 we’re going to know exactly how much water is falling over areas of the planet that are prone to landslides. 55 00:03:39,150 --> 00:03:43,140 So as climate change goes on, we’re going to see wet 56 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:47,160 areas of the planet getting wetter and dry areas possibly getting dryer. 57 00:03:47,180 --> 00:03:51,160 We need to have an understanding of the entire global system of precipitation to be able to make 58 00:03:51,180 --> 00:03:55,170 better predictions about what’s going to happen in the future.” 59 00:03:55,190 --> 00:03:59,170 [ off camera ] “Tell us were can we learn more?” [Thaller] “Well if you’d like to learn more about GPM, 60 00:03:59,190 --> 00:04:03,190 please go to our website NASA.GOV / GPM. 61 00:04:03,210 --> 00:04:07,210 You can see animations of the spacecraft. You can learn more about what sort of data we’re going to be 62 00:04:07,230 --> 00:04:11,220 returning and I encourage you also to look for us on social media.” 63 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:17,204 [ off camera ] “Dr. Michelle Thaller, thanks so much for joining us.” [Thaller] “Thank you.”