Rainy Day Link to TRMM
Beginning in 1998 and extending ten year, the TRMM Satellite has provided daily rainfall data for the world to follow in some form or another. Managed jointly by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, the satellite has surpassed the scientific results the science community expected. During the past year, unprecedented near-real time information has been produced on precipitation that has advanced climate, weather, and applied research like never before.
It is a historic mission being the satellite’s first and only weather radar in space, and that is for sure. NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring satellite is referred to as TRMM. Notable research achievements over the last ten years are attributed to this new satellite, which includes state-of-the-art precipitation radar, microwave images, and visible and infrared scanner instruments. In recognition of the 10th anniversary for scientists of NASA and other institutions, the satellite’s data has been used as an essential tool in recent research. The link between rainfall and the day of the week is evident from the data collected, with many summer-time storms in the southeastern United States produce more rainfall midweek than on weekends. The interesting thing is this–air pollution from humans is likely driving that trend according to scientists.
The southeast has calmer and drier weekends, with stronger storms and more rain, covering a larger area in the middle of the week. Atmospheric scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD led a study that shows that this trend may be attributed to atmospheric pollution from humans, which also peaks in the midweek. On the average, it rains more between Tuesday and Thursday than from Saturday through Monday.
The summer of 2007 data, which was newly analyzed, also showed the same pattern. It has also revealed that midweek increases in rainfall was more significant in the afternoon, peaking on Tuesdays with 1.8 times more rainfall than on Saturdays, which had the least amount of afternoon rain. Ground-based data from gauges, along with vertical wind speed and cloud height measurements, help confirm the weekly trend in rainfall that is observed from space and was used by the team. They analyzed particulate matter, the concentrations of airborne particles associated with pollution, across the United States from 1998 to 2005 to see if the pollution from humans could possibly be responsible for the midweek boost in rainfall. The Environment Protection Agency provided data that showed that pollution tended to peak midweek, being the same as that observed in the rainfall data. With the assistance of satellites, new insights into pollution’s effect on weather one day could help improve the accuracy of rainfall forecasts.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
