GCOM-W1

Global Precipitation Measurement Constellation

Submitted by JacobAdmin on Fri, 06/08/2012

Nine U.S. and international satellites will soon be united by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a partnership co-led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NASA and JAXA will provide the GPM Core satellite to serve as a reference for precipitation measurements made by this constellation of satellites, which will be combined into a single global dataset continually refreshed every three hours.
 

JAXA Launches GCOM-W1 Satellite

Congratulations to our partner, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), for the successful launch yesterday of the Global Change Observation Mission 1st - Water (GCOM-W1). GCOM-W1 carries the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) which successfully deployed its antenna on orbit. AMSR2 will detect microwave radiation to measure sea surface temperature, sea surface wind speed, sea ice concentration, snow depth, soil moisture, water vapor, cloud liquid water, and precipitation. GCOM-W1 will be a part of the GPM constellation, contributing its measurements to the GPM global data
GPM Constellation
Diagram showing GPM Core, Megha-Tropiques, DMSP series, GCOM-W1, etc
JacobAdmin Tue, 07/05/2011
Image Caption
Illustration of the multiple precipitation measurement satellites which comprise the GPM constellation.