Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
 

rainguageTRMM Validation

Space-based measurements of such an elusive parameter as rainfall, even with the advanced technology now available, is a real challenge because rainfall varies so widely over time and space. To ensure credible results, the TRMM project is developing a global ground validation program. The project is establishing cooperative sites around the tropics, covering areas that receive different amounts of rainfall, with precipitation radars and rain gauges to verify, and calibrate the TRMM measurements. Routine collection of radar and rain gauge data is already well underway from Darwin, Australia; the Marshall Island/Atoll of Kwajalein; Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; southern Texas; Phuket and Chang Mai, Thailand; Israel; Taiwan; and southern Brazil. The validation program supports TRMM algorithm development and includes an extensive precipitation research component.

TRMM: A Comprehensive Program

TRMM is planned as a three-year, systematic program designed to increase the extent and accuracy of rainfall measurements. It is a timely collaboration that meets the research objectives of both the United States and Japan. The mission makes major contributions to several international Earth Science Programs and is an essential component of NASA's long range plan to study global change from space. The TRMM project is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system. TRMM is managed by Goddard's Flight Projects Directorate for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C.

Additional information, images, and animations on NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission can be found on theTRMM website.

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Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
Introduction
Importance to Global Change and Human Welfare
Role of Rainfall in the Earth System
TRMM Observatory and Instruments
Science Data Retrieval and Transmission Process
TRMM Validation