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Dave Thurlow, Host

 

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. A little over a year ago, NASA launched a satellite to begin it's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission:

Marshall Sheppard: "The tropical rainfall measuring mission is the first mission dedicated to measuring tropical and subtropical rainfall using microwave visible infrared sensors and also the world's first space born rain radar. And this is important due to the fact that tropical rainfall comprises more than 2/3 of global rainfall."

That's Marshall Sheppard, of the Goddard Space Center in Washington, DC:

Hurricane Mitch Oct. 27th,1998-NASA Photo

Marshall Sheppard: "On the surface, that's not necessarily the most important feature, but what we do know is that most of the energy or fuel supply that drives climate and weather circulation that affect our weather here in the Washington, DC area and New Hampshire are driven by the fuel supply released when these large rainfall systems in the tropics form." Because the satellite has 5 different types of radar on board, the advantage of the TRMM satellite is scientists can now get a 3 dimensional look at the storms that develop from the fuel supply of the tropics:

Marshall Sheppard: "This is the first time we've actually put a radar like this in a space orbit, which allows us to see the 3 dimensional structure of rainfall, which is a liability of the ground based systems that we see on the evening news. They're only 2 dimensional. But with a space based platform, we can actually see the 3 dimensional structure of the rainfall."

Mr. Sheppard hopes the TRMM Satellite's 3 dimensional data of 'tropical' rainfall help forecasters better predict any kind of rainfall. For more visit our website at weathernotebook.org. Thanks to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.