NASA and Ball Aerospace have come together to find a way to track the world’s rainfall and snow in a more accurate manner. The new GMI weather satellite and OLYMPEX will be working together to achieve this mission. OLYMPEX will be performing its mission sometime between November of this year and January 2016.
Purpose of OLYMPEX
OLYMPEX, which stands for Olympic Mountains Ground Validation Experiment, is one of the many tools that NASA is using to help validate its Global Precipitation Measurement satellite (GPM). The goal is to use OLYMPEX as a way to ensure that all of the measurements taken by GPM are accurate before sending out a new satellite to help further measure rain and snow across the Earth.
For its first mission, OLYMPEX will only be working in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. This is to help zone in on any discrepancies in a smaller area to see if GPM is maintaining as accurate measurements as possible. The other purpose of OLYMPEX is to help scientists determine the use of GPM for weather forecasting and climate data and to ensure that it is functioning with as much accuracy as possible.
NASA and Ball Aerospace Satellite
There is discussion of a new GMI weather satellite, as seen on NASA that has been created between NASA and Ball Aerospace and will help to obtain the most precise measurements for both snow and rain across the globe. The new satellite is still undergoing construction and will most likely not be ready to launch into orbit for the next several years.
This new satellite will be using dual frequency radar and will be equipped with passive microwave sensors. These tools will allow the satellite to accurately measure precipitation over Earth. The satellite’s Core Microwave Imager will be doing most of the work while it is in orbit to track all of this data. The satellite is currently being referred to as GMI.
GMI Functions
The GMI weather satellite will have extraordinarily precise measurements of all the precipitation on Earth. It will be able to measure even the smallest droplets and tell scientists the size of the drops, the rate of fall of the drops and even the speed of the drops as they are falling. This can help to give scientists great breakthroughs in this area of science.
Along with the satellite that will be in orbit, there will be tools to help collaborate the effort working here on Earth. The hope is that with both of these tools combined, the measurements and data will be as precise as humanly possible. This new satellite will also be able to help calibrate the other satellites that currently make up the Global Precipitation Measurement system that is in place.
NOAA will benefit greatly from this new GMI weather satellite as it will further its ability to keep everyone on Earth better informed about the changes in weather that are happening immediately as well as give us insight into the overall patterns of precipitation over an extended period of time.
Overall, this new GMI weather satellite, as seen at NASA’s GPM website, will have a hugely positive impact on the world and on the knowledge that both scientists and the public have about precipitation on our planet and the way that we understand the weather.
