Mission data is collected by the TRMM satellite, which was launched in 1997, and remains in orbit. Once collected, all data is sent to Earth, where it must be validated via ground-based systems. This validation is performed by The NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite Validation Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Each day, every 6 - 10 minutes, several National Weather Service Doppler radars throughout the Unites States perform scans of rainfall data in their current areas. The radar data is received by the National Weather Service and sent to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Next, it is sent to the TRMM Validation Office in Greenbelt, Maryland.At approximately 8 PM EST each day, the radar data is processed by an IDL program, which creates images out of the received radar scans. These images are then copied to a Linux server, where they are made available for online viewing.
NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, is an ongoing collaborative effort between NASA and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). The purpose of this mission is to analyze tropical rainfall information in the hopes of gaining greater insight into the water cycles in the Earth's current climate system. By studying this information, scientists are able to better understand the effects of global warming, and more accurately predict future changes in the Earth's climates.