How is global warming affecting precipitation? New satellite to help explain

The United States and Japan are about to launch the 4.3-ton Global Precipitation Monitoring satellite, which was designed to monitor rain and snowfall in unprecedented detail, reports Christian Science Monitor.

Apart from weather and climate applications, information gathered from the tool will improve flood and landslide forecasts, and help track changes in the distribution of waterborne diseases, stated Ramesh Kakar, program scientist for this project and its predecessor, the US-Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which was launched in 1997.

As the name implies, the TRMM satellite focuses on precipitation in the tropics – peering into the structure and rainfall patterns of storms ranging from afternoon thundershowers to large tropical cyclones. But it covered only the tropics and subtropics, and moderate to heavy precipitation intensities.