ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to take this opportunity as my privilege to thank all those whose

persistent contributions and suggestions have helped me in the fulfillment
of this project.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my
guide, Prof. Karan Sharma, who was always there to help me with proper
guidance and unstained support. He provided me with valuable
suggestions during the course of my work, for the completion of the
seminar project.
Last but not the least; I would like to thank my colleagues
also.

CONTENTS
1. Introduction4
1.1.General
description4
1.2.Objective..4
2. GPM Space crafts and
instruments...........................................5
2.1 GPM CORE
Observatory.....5-7
2.2. GPM Microwave Imager (GMI):..
7-11
2.3. Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR)
....11-14

3.GPM Mission
Applications.14-15

REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) is an international
satellite mission to provide next-generation observations of rain
and snow worldwide every three hours.
Objective: NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) launched the Global Precipitation Measurement
(GPM) is an international satellite mission to provide nextgeneration observations of rain and snow worldwide every three
hours.
NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
launched the GPM Core Observatory satellite on February 27th,
2014, carrying advanced instruments that will set a new standard
for precipitation measurements from space. The data they provide
will be used to unify precipitation measurements made by an
international network of partner satellites to quantify when, where,
and how much it rains or snows around the world.
The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's
water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme
events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities
of using satellite precipitation information to directly benefit society.
on February 27th, 2014, carrying advanced instruments that will
set a new standard for precipitation measurements from space.
The data they provide will be used to unify precipitation
measurements made by an international network of partner
satellites to quantify when, where, and how much it rains or snows
around the world.
The GPM mission will help advance our understanding of Earth's
water and energy cycles, improve the forecasting of extreme
events that cause natural disasters, and extend current capabilities
of using satellite precipitation information to directly benefit society.

GPM Spacecraft and Instruments:

The foundation of the GPM mission is the Core Observatory

satellite provided by NASA and JAXA. Data collected from the
Core satellite serves as a reference standard that will unify
precipitation measurements from research and operational
satellites launched by a consortium of GPM partners in the United
States, Japan, France, India, and Europe. The GPM constellation
of satellites can observe precipitation over the entire globe every
2-3 hours. The Core satellite will measure rain and snow using two
science instruments: the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and the
Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The GMI captures
precipitation intensities and horizontal patterns, while the DPR
provides insights into the three dimensional structure of
precipitating particles. Together these two instruments provide a
database of measurements against which other partner satellites
microwave observations can be meaningfully compared and
combined to make a global precipitation dataset.

GPM CORE Observatory:

The Core Observatory satellite flies at an altitude of 253 miles (407
kilometers) in a non-Sun-synchronous orbit that covers the Earth
from 65S to 65N from about the Antarctic Circle to the Arctic
Circle. The GPM Core Observatory was developed and tested at
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Once completed, it was
then shipped to Japan, and a Japanese H-IIA rocket carried the
GPM Core Observatory into orbit from Tanegashima Island,
4

, on February 27th, 2014.

More about GPM CORE Observatory:

Carrying both a dual frequency radar instrument and a
passive microwave radiometer, the Core Spacecraft will
serve as a calibration standard for the other members of
the GPM spacecraft constellation.
The Core Spacecraft was developed and tested in-house at
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The GPM Core
Observatory orbit inclination of 65 degrees is such that it
enables the orbit to cut across the orbits of other
microwave radiometers, sample the latitudes where nearly
all precipitation occurs, and sample at different times of
day. The GPM Core Observatory GMI instrument science
data will be returned continuously by TDRSS-MA (TDRSS
Multiple Access) link. Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar
science data will be returned once an orbit by TDRSS-SA
(TDRSS Single Access) link.

Fig.1

GPM Microwave Imager (GMI):

The GMI uses 13 different microwave channels to observe energy
from the different types of precipitation through clouds for
estimating everything from heavy to light rain and for detecting
falling snow. As the satellite passes over Earth, the GMI constantly
scans a region 550 miles (885 kilometers) across. The Ball
Aerospace and Technology Corporation built the GMI under
contract with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

he Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave

Imager (GMI) instrument is a multi-channel, conicalscanning, microwave radiometer serving an essential role
in the near-global-coverage and frequent-revisit-time
requirements of GPM.
6

Fig.2
Illustration of the GMI
7

The instrumentation enables the Core spacecraft to serve

as both a precipitation standard and as a radiometric
standard for the other GPM constellation members.
The GMI is characterized by thirteen microwave channels
ranging in frequency from 10 GHz to 183 GHz. In addition
to carrying channels similar to those on the Tropical
Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager
(TMI), the GMI carries four high frequency, millimeterwave, channels about 166 GHz and 183 GHz.
With a 1.2 m diameter antenna, the GMI will provide
significantly improved spatial resolution over TMI.
Scan Geometry
The off-nadir-angle defining the cone swept out by the
GMI is set at 48.5 degrees which represents an earthincidence-angle of 52.8 degrees. To maintain similar
geometry with the predecessor TMI instrument, the-earthincidence angle of GMI was chosen identical to that of the
TMI. Rotating at 32 rotations per minute, the GMI will
gather microwave radiometric brightness measurements
over a 140 degree sector centered about the spacecraft
ground track vector. The remaining angular sector is used
for performing calibration; i.e. observation of cold space
as well as observation of a hot calibration target.
The 140 degree GMI swath represents a swath of 904 km
(562 miles) on the Earth's surface. For comparison, the
DPR instrument is characterized by cross-track swath
widths of 245 km (152 miles) and 120 km (75 miles), for
the Ku and Ka-band radars respectively. Only the central
portions of the GMI swath will overlap the radar swaths
(and with approximately 67 second duration between
measurements due to the geometry and spacecraft
motion). These measurements within the overlapped
swaths are important for improving precipitation
retrievals, and in particular, the radiometer-based
retrievals.

Components of the GMI:

1.

Instrument Spacecraft Structure - the base

structure for GMI.
2. Spin Mechanism Assembly - the DC motor that
spins GMI.
3. Slip Ring Assembly - passes receiver subsystem
data from the instruments spinning portion to its nonspinning portion (see #15, the ICA), which then sends
data to the spacecraft and then to Earth.
4. Instrument Base Structure (IBS) - holds all the
receiver components.
5. Hot Load Tray keeps the sun out of the hot load
(#7) and helps maintain its thermal environment.
6. Feed Horns - focus the reflected RF energy and
send it down the wave-guides (#12) to the RF
receivers (#11).
7. Hot Load - provides warm temperature reference for
the receivers. GMI self-calibrates by using the constant
temperature references of the hot load, the cold sky
reflector (#9), and the noise diodes (#12).
8. Despin Assembly - holds the cold sky reflector and
the hot load tray in place.
9. Cold Sky Reflector - looks at deep space to provide
a cold temperature reference for the receivers.
10. Launch Locks - hold the IBS to the deck during
launch.
11. RF Receivers (attached to the IBSs sides)
- detect/measure the RF energy associated with the
Earths precipitation (moisture from humidity, dew,
snow, rain, and so on).
12. Wave-guides, Noise Diodes, MixerPreamplifiers, RF Coaxial Cables - the wave-guides
and RF coaxial cables are conduits from the feed horns
(#6) to the receiver subsystem. The noise diodes
provide mid-range temperature references to the three
low-frequency receivers for calibration purposes. The

mixer-preamplifiers are the front ends for the three

high-frequency receivers.
13. Sunshade and Struts - the sunshade exposes one
side of the instrument to the Sun and blocks the other
side from the Sun; the struts hold the main reflector.
14. Main Reflector (and its support structure)
- reflects the RF energy emitted from the Earths
atmosphere into the feed horns; its coating of
aluminum and then silicon oxide diffuses sunlight,
which could damage the feed horns. The feed horns
are located near the focal point to achieve the best
combination of efficiency and beam-width performance
across the various frequencies.
15. Instrument Control Assembly, or ICA (attached
below the Instrument Spacecraft Structure)
- controls the power from the spacecraft to the
instrument; controls the temperature of the
instrument; controls the transmittal of science data
from the receiver system; and maintains the spinning
of the system through the spin mechanism assembly
(#2).

Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR)

The DPR provides three-dimensional information about
precipitation particles derived from reflected energy by these
particles at different heights within the cloud system. The two
frequencies of the DPR also allow the radar to infer the sizes of
precipitation particles and offer insights into a storms physical
characteristics. The Ka-band frequency scans across a region of
78 miles (125 kilometers) and is nested within the wider scan of
the Ku-band frequency of 158 miles (254 kilometers). The Japan
Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Japans National
Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
built the DPR

10

One of the prime instruments for the GPM Core

Observatory is called the Dualfrequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The DPR
consists of a Ku-band precipitation radar (KuPR) and
a Ka-band precipitation radar (KaPR). The KuPR
(13.6 GHz) is an updated version of the highly successful
unit flown on the TRMM mission (shown below). The KuPR
and the KaPR will be co-aligned on the GPM spacecraft bus
such that that the 5 km (3.1 mile) footprint location on
the earth will be the same.

Fig.3A JAXA scientist standing next to the DPR

Data collected from the KuPR and KaPR units will provide
3-dimensional observations of rain and will also provide an
accurate estimation of rainfall rate to the scientific
community. The DPR instrument will be allocated 190
Kbps bandwidth over the 1553B spacecraft data bus.
11

DPR Instrument Details

The DPR is a space borne precipitation radar capable of
making accurate rainfall measurements. The DPR is
expected to be more sensitive than its TRMM predecessor
especially in the measurement of light rainfall and snowfall
in high latitude regions. Rain/snow determination is
expected to be accomplished by using the differential
attenuation between the Ku-band and the Ka-band
frequencies. The variable pulse repetition frequency
(VPRF) technique is also expected to increase the number
of samples at each IFOV to realize a 0.2 mm/h sensitivity.
The KuPR and KaPR, together with GMI, are the primary
instruments on the GPM spacecraft. These Earth-pointing
KuPR and KaPR instruments will provide rain sensing over
both land and ocean, both day and night.
Top-level general design specifications are as follows:
Item

KuPR

KaPR

Swath Width

245 kilometers
120 kilometers (km)
(km)

Range
Resolution

250 meters (m) 250/500 meters (m)

Spatial
Resolution

5 km (Nadir)

5 km (Nadir)

Beam Width

0.71 degrees

0.71 degrees

12

Transmitter

128 Solid State 128 Solid State

Amplifiers
Amplifiers

Peak Transmit
Power

1013 Watts (W) 146 Watts (W)

Pulse Repetition
Freq. (In
4100 to 4400
nominal
Hertz
operations
mode)

Pulse Width

Beam Number

4100 to 4400 Hertz

two 1.667
microseconds
(s) pulses

two 1.667 microseconds

(s) pulses in matched
beams two 3.234
microseconds (s)
pulses in interlaced
scans

49

49 (25 in matched
beams and 24 in
interlaced scans)

13

GPM Mission Applications

Water is fundamental to life on Earth. Knowing where and how
much precipitation falls globally is vital to understanding how
weather and climate impact our environment, including the effects
on agriculture, fresh water availability and natural disasters. The
use of advanced space borne instruments to measure global
precipitation every three hours can reveal new information for a
diverse range of applications across agencies, research
institutions and the global community.
Among the applications of GPM mission data are improvements to
our understanding and forecasting of tropical cyclones, extreme
weather, floods, landslides, land surface models, the spread of
water-borne diseases, agriculture, freshwater availability and
climate change. Data from the GPM Core Observatory, combined
with data from other satellites within the constellation, will lead to
advances in precipitation measurement science that will
subsequently benefit society for years to come.

1. Extended Capabilities in Monitoring and

Predicting Hurricanes
Satellites allow us to observe changes in the precipitation structure
over the life cycle of a storm, especially over oceans and regions
where ground-based data are sparse. In particular, TRMM has
provided insights into the dynamics of a storm, such as how the
eye of a hurricane stays stable as the storm moves across Earths
surface, and how tropical cyclone intensification can be estimated
through the presence of hot tower structures. In this image, hot
towers (red spikes) present in Hurricane Katrina were observed as
the storm was intensifying. The GPM mission will extend coverage
and improve scientists ability to evaluate how storms change in
intensity over time. These observations will improve hurricane
tracking and forecasts, which can help decision makers save lives.

2. Enhanced Prediction Skills for Weather and

Climate
14

To predict future changes in weather and climate, scientists use

sophisticated computer models. These models rely on available
global data to describe the conditions that exist today to project
how conditions may change in the future. By providing
measurements of precipitation microphysics, GPM advances Earth
system analysis and modeling.

3. Improved Forecasting Capabilities for

Floods, Droughts and Landslides
Too much or too little rain can have huge impacts on people
around the world. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC, 2011), an increase in the average global
temperature is very likely to lead to changes in precipitation and
atmospheric moisture, including shifts towards more extreme
precipitation during storms. Data from GPM satellites will help
improve forecasting capabilities for natural hazards such as floods,
drought and landslides.

4. Better Agricultural Crop Forecasting

The agricultural community needs to know the timing and amount
of precipitation to forecast crop yields and warn of freshwater
shortages that might affect irrigation and production. Satellite data
from the GPM mission will provide global precipitation estimates
over land that can be incorporated into forecast models.

5. Monitoring Freshwater Resources

Water resource managers rely on accurate precipitation
measurements to monitor freshwater resources necessary for
human activities including public consumption, irrigation,
sanitation, mining, livestock and powering industries. Global
observations of precipitation from the GPM constellation of
satellites will allow scientist to better understand and predict
changes in freshwater supply.

15

REFERENCES:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pag
es/GPM/spacecraft/index.html#.V
GhDMvmUde_

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