WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.820 --> 00:00:21.880
[ Outtake ]

2
00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:26.150
[ Reporter ] NASA is releasing a new global portrait of rain and snow, 

3
00:00:26.170 --> 00:00:30.180
and here to show us this portrait and tell us a little more about it is 

4
00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:35.850
Dr. Gail Skofronick-Jackson from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

5
00:00:35.870 --> 00:00:36.920
Thanks for joining us.

6
00:00:36.940 --> 00:00:38.100
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] Thank you.

7
00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:42.140
Typically what you might see are localized rain maps from your ground based radars,

8
00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:45.020
or maybe the white cloud tops from satellites.

9
00:00:45.040 --> 00:00:49.980
With the new joint NASA/Japan Global Precipitation Measurement mission, or GPM,

10
00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.450
we're actually able to provide uniform precipitation estimates

11
00:00:54.470 --> 00:00:57.560
using a constellation of about a dozen satellites.

12
00:00:57.580 --> 00:01:01.720
With this data, which is important for science and society,

13
00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.880
we are able to see rain and snow globally

14
00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:10.360
every 30 minutes at the scale of a small suburb.

15
00:01:10.380 --> 00:01:15.080
[ Reporter ] Can you take us on a tour and show us some of the surprising things you've seen?

16
00:01:15.100 --> 00:01:19.190
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] So there's been many impressive features we've seen with this data set.

17
00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:25.280
But first, I want to show you some data from March 24th, 25th, and 26th, 2015.

18
00:01:25.300 --> 00:01:29.300
There's some very severe thunderstorms in the US.

19
00:01:29.320 --> 00:01:32.630
In fact, in Moore, Oklahoma they had a tornado.

20
00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.360
So that's some really interesting data.

21
00:01:35.380 --> 00:01:40.460
We also have, looking at the Amazon, you can see these very small, intense features

22
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:43.600
that kind of pop up and then disappear,

23
00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:47.640
as well as these large features that persist a little bit longer.

24
00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:51.680
These systems provide rain that drain into the Amazon River,

25
00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:53.860
the largest river in the world.

26
00:01:53.880 --> 00:01:57.920
Finally, moving south, you can see these huge systems spiraling

27
00:01:57.940 --> 00:02:03.100
in the southern ocean, an area of the world where we just don't have good ground data,

28
00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.310
and we need to be able to measure this data from space to see it.

29
00:02:06.330 --> 00:02:11.240
[ Reporter ] I understand this is the first satellite designed specifically to measure falling snow.

30
00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:13.320
Tell us a little bit about that and why that's important.

31
00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:17.510
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] Right, so GPM, the core observatory, was specifically designed

32
00:02:17.530 --> 00:02:21.560
to measure falling snow, but it was also designed to see three dimensionally

33
00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:25.670
within the clouds. So we look at Hurricane Arthur from July 2014,

34
00:02:25.690 --> 00:02:29.860
you can see in the greens to reds, the liquid precipitation near the ocean surface,

35
00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:36.920
But high up in the cloud, you can see in blues to purple, frozen precipitation.

36
00:02:36.940 --> 00:02:42.100
All hurricanes have ice in the tops of their clouds, but if it happens to be cold enough

37
00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:46.160
at the Earth's surface, we can see falling snow with this satellite.

38
00:02:46.180 --> 00:02:51.200
In this particular animation, you can see, from February 2015,

39
00:02:51.220 --> 00:02:54.220
you can see the rain-snow transition line.

40
00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.290
And so it's really important to measure all these different types of precipitation

41
00:02:58.310 --> 00:03:02.460
because they contribute to Earth's water resources.

42
00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:06.490
[ Reporter ] How will forecasters and emergency managers use these maps?

43
00:03:06.510 --> 00:03:09.520
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] Yeah, water is essential for all life on Earth,

44
00:03:09.540 --> 00:03:12.550
so knowing where, when, and how much it rains or snows is very important

45
00:03:12.570 --> 00:03:17.730
to help us predict where floods might occur, where droughts might occur,

46
00:03:17.750 --> 00:03:21.770
landslides, or where the hurricanes might be impacting our coastlines.

47
00:03:21.790 --> 00:03:26.800
So GPM provides this data in near real time, so that emergency responders

48
00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:31.920
can get early access to it and to be able to predict or 

49
00:03:31.940 --> 00:03:34.940
make decisions about disaster warnings.

50
00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:41.070
And finally, with the GPM data, one of the best uses of it to be able to improve

51
00:03:41.090 --> 00:03:42.990
our weather forecasts and our climate change models

52
00:03:43.010 --> 00:03:46.020
for our everyday lives and our long term future.

53
00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:50.120
[ Reporter ] I understand there was a lot of interesting activity

54
00:03:50.140 --> 00:03:53.240
that happened over the oceans just last week.

55
00:03:53.260 --> 00:03:55.310
Can you tell us a little bit about that?

56
00:03:55.330 --> 00:03:59.320
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] So, actually, last week there was Typhoon Maysak

57
00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:03.330
which we were able to see, we don't have visualizations of it yet

58
00:04:03.350 --> 00:04:08.490
because it's so new, but we're able to capture events like that in three dimensions

59
00:04:08.510 --> 00:04:10.500
to provide this additional information.

60
00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:14.660
[ Reporter ] And where can we learn more about this mission?

61
00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.690
[ Dr. Skofronick-Jackson ] Oh, it's been such an exciting year for NASA

62
00:04:17.710 --> 00:04:21.740
We've had 5 Earth science satellites measuring everything from soil moisture

63
00:04:21.760 --> 00:04:26.920
to the carbon in the atmosphere. And you can get more information at 

64
00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:30.100
NASA.gov/earthrightnow

65
00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:37.458
[Reporter] Ok, thanks so much for joining us.