The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission

Abstract

Water is a fundamental component of the Earth’s water and energy cycles and is essential to our economic and social wellbeing. Since precipitation is the primary input into these cycles and affects the availability of water resources over land areas, the measurement of precipitation across the globe is of critical importance. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory (CO), a joint US and Japan mission launched in 2014, extends and enhances the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The GPM-CO carries high-quality passive and active microwave instruments designed to observe the structure and intensity of falling rainfall and snowfall. The high standard of accuracy of these sensors also provides a reference standard for other precipitation sensors in the GPM constellation which comprises of a suite of satellites from international organisations, enabling global sampling from passive microwave (PMW) sensors at a 3-hourly interval better than 90% of the time. Together with geostationary (GEO) infrared (IR) observations, these data enable global 30-min, 0.1° × 0.1° precipitation products to be computed and posted in near real-time. Precipitation products are made available to, and utilized by, user communities ranging from numerical weather prediction (NWP) organisations to water resources services.