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Scott Braun: TRMM is the

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Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission. It was launched in November of 1997,

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originally designed as a five-year

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mission, but we've gone now for fifteen years.

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Music.
Fifteen years and thousands of

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storms later, TRMM has contributed to the advancement of scientific milestones.

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TRMM has advanced research in the areas of agriculture,

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disease tracking, precipitation physics, and natural hazards.

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Scott: We get roughly three hourly rainfall estimates

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across much of the globe at fairly high resolution, and these

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rainfall estimates are used to monitor major rainfall events, and to

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look for events that might lead to significant flooding

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and even landslides, and there are a number of groups that have been using it

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as sort of an early warning system.

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TRMM's unforseen longevity has provided more

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robust information on weather and climate patterns that can only be seen

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after years of observations. This decade and a half of data

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lets scientists see variations in rainfall from year to year, how El Nino

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affects rain patterns worldwide, and the anatomy and lifecycle

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of major storms, like hurricanes.
Scott: It's also proven

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to be an extremely useful satellite for understanding hurricanes,

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partly because its orbit stays within the tropics, so you get

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much more frequent observations. And it's just provided a wealth of

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rainfall information over its relatively short time period

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that, in many ways, surpasses all of the information we have

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prior to that.

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From giant storms

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to individual droplets: TRMM also provides scientists with

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data on the precise physics of falling rain drops.
Scott: TRMM has a unique

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set of instruments, including the first and only precipitation radar in space

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It also has a microwave imager, which is an instrument

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that can give you the equivalent of an X-ray of a storm, whereas the radar

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is giving you more of a CAT scan of the storm. It provides

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extremely valuable information on the structure, rainfall structure,

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of storms, which tells us something about how

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the storm is responding to its environment, whether or not it might intensify

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or weaken in the upcoming hours.

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Building on TRMM's success will be the Global Precipitation Measurement, or GPM,

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mission. Its two instruments are more advanced and more sensitive versions

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of TRMM's microwave imager and precipitation radar.

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GPM's orbit will also extend coverage beyond the tropics, and provide

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measurements of light to heavy rain and snow, expanding TRMM's legacy

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into the future.

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[ beeping sound, thunder ]

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