'Revolutionary' space project to improve weather and climate forecasting

29 July 2012

An international team of scientists spent time earlier this year measuring precipitation above the Canadian province of Ontario. The aim: To improve satellite estimates of falling snow and test ground validation capabilities before a planned launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite in mid-2014.

Measuring snowfall from space is no easy task. NASA is working with counterparts in Canada and Japan to prepare for GPM, which will include cutting-edge technology that detects falling snow from space, and provide worldwide data on rain and snowfall every three hours.

The GPM core satellite will be used to unify other satellite-based rainfall sensors from space agencies around the world, said Gail Skofronick Jackson, deputy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

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Source: Earthzine