How is global warming affecting precipitation? New satellite to help explain.

[unhappycamper]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/1226/How-is-global-warming-affecting-precipitation-New-satellite-to-help-explain



A NASA satellite captured this image of a storm system moving across the United States, Dec. 20. A new satellite, set to launch in February, will gather data that can help with efforts to monitor the effects of global warming on precipitation.

How is global warming affecting precipitation? New satellite to help explain.
By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / December 26, 2013

The United States and Japan are getting set to launch a 4.3-ton satellite designed to monitor rain and snowfall in unprecedented detail.

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The spacecraft, the Global Precipitation Monitoring (GPM) satellite, has been designed as the centerpiece of an international squadron of nine satellites that are already on orbit.

The data the new satellite will gather not only will feed unique information into current efforts to forecast weather and monitor the effects of global warming on precipitation. GPM data also will serve as a standard against which data from the other satellites in the constellation will be adjusted to improve their accuracy.

Beyond weather and climate applications, data from the constellation will improve flood and landslide forecasts, as well as help track changes in the distribution of waterborne diseases, notes Ramesh Kakar, program scientist for this mission and its predecessor, the US-Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which was launched in 1997.