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- [Text Source: NASA Science Missions Directorate Homepage, http://science.nasa.gov/missions/gpm/ ]
GPM Constellation is a joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other international partners. Building upon the success of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), it will initiate the measurement of global precipitation, a key climate factor. Its science objectives are: to improve ongoing efforts to predict climate by providing near-global measurement of precipitation, its distribution, and physical processes; to improve the accuracy of weather and precipitation forecasts through more accurate measurement of rain rates and latent heating; and to provide more frequent and complete sampling of the Earth's precipitation. GPM Constellation is envisioned to consist of a core spacecraft to measure precipitation structure and to provide a calibration standard for the constellation spacecraft, an international constellation of NASA and contributed spacecraft to provide frequent precipitation measurements on a global basis, calibration/validation sites distributed globally with a broad array of precipitation-measuring instrumentation, and a global precipitation data system to produce and distribute global rain maps and climate research products. The GPM Core Observatory carries the first space-borne Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a multi-channel GPM Microwave Imager (GMI). The DPR instrument, which provides three dimensional measurements of precipitation structure over 78 and 152 mile (125 and 245 km) swaths, consists of a Ka-band precipitation radar (KaPR) operating at 35.5 GHz and a Ku-band precipitation radar (KuPR) operating at 13.6 GHz. Relative to the TRMM precipitation radar, the DPR is more sensitive to light rain rates and snowfall. In addition, simultaneous measurements by the overlapping of Ka/Ku-bands of the DPR can provide new information on particle drop size distributions over moderate precipitation intensities. In addition, by providing new microphysical measurements from the DPR to complement cloud and aerosol observations, GPM is expected to provide further insights into how precipitation processes may be affected by human activities. The GMI instrument is a conical-scanning multi-channel microwave radiometer covering a swath of 550 miles (885 km) with thirteen channels ranging in frequency from 10 GHz to 183 GHz. The GMI uses a set of frequencies that have been optimized over the past two decades to retrieve heavy, moderate and light precipitation using the polarization difference at each channel as an indicator of the optical thickness and water content. Group: Platform_Details Entry_ID: GPM Group: Platform_Identification Platform_Category: Earth Observation Satellites Short_Name: GPM Long_Name: Global Precipitation Measurement End_Group Group: Platform_Associated_Instruments Short_Name: GMI Short_Name: DPR End_Group Group: Orbit Orbit_Type: LEO > Low Earth Orbit > Polar Non-Sun-Synchronous End_Group Creation_Date: 2009-02-25 Online_Resource: http://pmm.nasa.gov/GPM Online_Resource: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/gpm/ Online_Resource: http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gpm/index.html Online_Resource: http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/GPM/index_e.htm Sample_Image: http://nasascience.nasa.gov/missions/gpm/graphic Group: Platform_Logistics Launch_Date: 2014-01-25 Launch_Site: TANEGASHIMA ISLAND, JAPAN Primary_Sponsor: USA/NASA Primary_Sponsor: JAPAN/JAXA End_Group End_Group
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