GPM News

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission's Core Observatory is performing normally. Calibration of the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) continued.

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission's Core Observatory is performing normally. On April 2, the GPM Core Observatory fired its thrusters for an 80-second delta-V burn that accelerated the spacecraft and circularized its orbit. The Core Observatory is now flying in its final orbit, 253 miles (407 kilometers) above Earth's surface. Calibration of the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) continued. On March 30 and 31, additional DPR external calibrations took place using the Active Radar Calibration site in Tsukuba, Japan. For the March 31 calibration

On March 17, the team executed GPM's first scheduled yaw turn to turn the orientation of the spacecraft 180 degrees. Yaw is the left/right orientation in the horizontal plane of the spacecraft's motion. The spacecraft is now "flying backwards." Yaw maneuvers will be performed approximately every 40 days for spacecraft thermal control, as the angle between the spacecraft's orbit and the sun changes. This keeps the side of the spacecraft that is designed to remain cold from overheating. Yaw maneuvers are performed primarily using the spacecraft's reaction wheels. March 19, the team performed a

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission's Core Observatory is performing normally. On March 12, the GPM Core Observatory fired its thrusters for a 30-second check-out of their performance. The burn, called a delta-v, changes the velocity of the spacecraft to adjust the altitude of its orbit. This week's short maneuver did not greatly alter the satellite's orbit but was used instead for further calibration of the thrusters. Functional checkout activities and internal calibration of the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar continued this week. Both DPR and the GPM Microwave Imager have begun

On Saturday, March 8, just after 10 a.m. EST, the second of the two science instruments aboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory was activated, and the teams in the mission operations center and launch support room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., began the instrument's checkout period. DPR functional checkout activities and internal calibrations continued on Sunday and will continue this week and next. DPR data is being sent through the Precipitation Processing System at Goddard to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. The initial checkout of the GMI instrument and the spacecraft showed both are performing as expected, and the GMI instrument continues to collect science data on rain and snowfall.

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. The GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) continues in science mode, and GMI data is being sent to the Precipitation Processing System (PPS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Using the initial data, the instrument team has verified that GMI is working well on-orbit. The GPM Core Observatory will have a 60 day on-orbit check out period to ensure the healthy operation of the spacecraft and instruments. Precipitation data will be released from the PPS no later than 6 months post-launch, after the

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory is performing normally. Today, the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument started to spin at its normal rate and collect science data on rain and snowfall. The GMI instrument is a multi-channel microwave radiometer that uses 13 channels to measure the intensity of the microwave energy emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere. GMI will detect total precipitation within all layers of clouds, including snow and ice, and rain from drizzles to downpours.

Today, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission Core Observatory successfully fired its thrusters for five seconds to check out the thruster performance. This type of maneuver, called a delta-V, changes the velocity of the spacecraft to adjust the altitude of its orbit. Today's delta-V resulted in only a very slight change in the orbit, but will help the GPM team assess and calibrate the thruster performance. By contrast, yesterday the team pulsed each maneuvering thruster 3-6 times, but for only 100 milliseconds each time. This was long enough to make sure the thrusters were working, but