A new satellite , built jointly by NASA and a similar Japanese ( JAXA ) , scheduled for release next month , will have the task of studying rain and snow around the world , the U.S. space agency announced on Monday . The Observatory for the Global Precipitation Measurement ( GPM , its acronym in English ) aims to help scientists combing through clouds and improve weather forecasts . The mission is the first coordinated international network of satellites to provide near real-time observations of rain and snow every three hours anywhere in the globe, NASA said . The data will be used by scientists to study climate change, freshwater resources , floods and droughts , as well as training and tracking hurricanes , he added . The satellite was flown from the U.S. to Japan and its launch is scheduled to occur in Tanegashima , JAXA Space Center on February 27 , between 16h07 and 19:07 Brasilia or in the early hours of February 28 , time Japan, NASA said . The observatory will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 407 kilometers. He will carry the precipitation radar dual frequency , manufactured by Japan and imager microwave ( GMI , its acronym in English ) , American manufacturing . About two months after launch, your data will be transmitted to the Goddard Space Center of NASA in Maryland , and distributed online .
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:03:27 +0000
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