TRMM satellite images show California storm moving eastward

This series of images from Feb. 28 to Mar. 3 shows the movement of the rain associated with the storm system that soaked California. 

On Mar. 3, precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) spread over large areas of the eastern United States. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite provided a look at the rainfall associated with the large storm system that brought soaking rains to California on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1.

Satellite imagery created at NASA shows the movement of the storm from the U.S. West Coast to the East Coast.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. images were created using data from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument that showed the movement of recent stormy weather from California's Pacific Ocean coast to the Atlantic Coast.

TRMM is a satellite managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency known as JAXA. Both agencies recently launched the GPM observatory, the follow-up to TRMM.

TRMM Images are routinely produced using TMI data which show the global area covered by the satellite.

"Those 'quick look' images use microwave brightness temperatures at 85.5 GHZ and at 37.0 GHZ combined in the red, green and blue components of the images," said Hal Pierce of the NASA TRMM team at Goddard who produced the images.

"The false color images can be used to distinguish land from water and show the differences between land surfaces such as deserts, snow cover and sea ice."

"On these images areas of dry atmosphere over water appear as blue and moist atmosphere is dark blue. Snow cover over land appears as white or grey, deserts are green. Scattering (by cloud ice) is shown as yellow."

The images Pierce created show TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) instrument views of the movement of the recent stormy weather from California's Pacific Ocean coast to the Atlantic Coast.

The first TRMM TMI image from February 28 showed a large low pressure center in the Pacific Ocean moving toward California.

Rain associated with this storm dropped over four inches of rain in Los Angeles that resulted in evacuation orders.


This animation from Feb. 28 to Mar. 3 shows the movement of the rain associated with the storm system that soaked California. 

On Mar. 3, precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) spread over large areas of the eastern United States. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

The next day, March 1, the center of the storm was just off the California coast and precipitation had also moved into Arizona.

By Sunday, March 2, precipitation in the form of rain, freezing rain and snow extended from New Mexico through the Ohio valley.

On Monday, March 3, TRMM's TMI instrument showed precipitation (yellow) and snow cover (white/yellow) over large areas of the eastern United States.

NASA Orion capsule moving to 2014 launch: Future Asteroid Exploration

A crane lifts the Orion EFT-1 crew module from its birdcage processing stand for transfer to dolly for continued assembly inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as workers monitor progress. 

Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014. 

Credit: NASA/Frankie Martin 

NASA is picking up the construction pace on the inaugural space-bound Orion crew capsule at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and accelerating towards blastoff on the unmanned Exploration Flight Test-1 mission (EFT-1) slated for September 2014.

The Orion capsule is being constructed in the Orion manufacturing assembly facility in the Operations and Checkout Building (O & C) and will be mounted atop a mammoth Delta 4 Heavy Booster which will one day lead to deep space human forays to Asteroids and Mars.

"We plan to power up Orion for the first time this summer," said Scott Wilson, Orion's Production Operations manager for NASA at KSC stated to a group of reporters.

EFT-1 Mission
The Orion EFT-1 flight is a critical first step towards achieving NASA's new goal of capturing and retrieving a Near Earth Asteroid for eventual visit by astronauts flying aboard an Orion vehicle by 2021 – if NASA's proposed budget request is approved.

KSC will have a leading role in NASA's asteroid retrieval project that could occur some four years earlier than President Obama's targeted goal of 2025 for a human journey to an asteroid.

Capturing an asteroid and dispatching astronauts aboard Orion to collect precious rock samples is reputed to aid the scientific understanding of the formation of the Solar System as well as bolster Planetary Defense strategies.

The importance of understanding NEOs and Asteroids is gathering more interest, following the unforeseen Russian meteor strike in February which injured over 1200 people and damaged over 3000 buildings.

GOES-14 (O) Moving Into On-Orbit Storage Around Earth

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite named GOES-14, is being placed in on-orbit storage this month to await its call to duty. Since it was launched, scientists and engineers on the ground have been monitoring the instruments on GOES-14, formerly known as GOES-O, and it is operating well.

"The GOES-14 Post Launch Test phase continues with the specification testing of the Image Navigation and Registration (INR) System and performance is excellent," said Andre' Dress, GOES N-P Deputy Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"The fall eclipse season has come to an end and the power and thermal performance was exactly what we expected."

Twice a year, around the spring and fall equinoxes the GOES spacecraft experience a period by which the sunlight is blocked by the Earth's shadow (eclipse). The maximum shadow duration is approximately 72 min out of the spacecraft's 24 hour orbit period. The shadow (or eclipse season) lasts for approximately 45 days, twice a year.

The GOES-14 team worked the satellite through a successful North/South station keeping maneuver at the end of October. Maneuvers are necessary to maintain the spacecraft's orbit.

GOES-14 is currently being moved at the rate of 1 degree per day from 90 West longitude to its storage location at 105 West longitude over the central United States and is expected to be there on November 20, 2009.

Once in the storage mode the spacecraft will be turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) around December 14, 2009, where they will continue to operate the spacecraft for the remainder of its mission.

GOES-14 will remain in on-orbit storage until it is needed to replace GOES-EAST or GOES-WEST.

If GOES-14 were stored on the Earth, it would have to be to be called out of deep storage to replace an on-orbit failure. There would be 9 to 12 months of preparation between call-up and launch, followed by 3 months of post-launch deployment and testing before it could become operational.

On-orbit storage reduces this delay from one year to less than one week, and avoids the chance of a launch failure when you can least afford it.

NOAA's GOES-O satellite is the second in the GOES-N Series that will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. On June 27, 2009, GOES-O, soared into space during a spectacular launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. GOES-O was renamed GOES-14 when it reached orbit.

NASA contracted with Boeing to build and launch the GOES-14 spacecraft. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida supported the launch in an advisory role.

NOAA manages the GOES program, establishes requirements, provides all funding and distributes environmental satellite data for the United States. Goddard procures and manages the design, development and launch of the satellites for NOAA.