<< Tropical Rainfall as the Atmospheric circulation dynamics on the Earth >>
Rainfall plays a central and important role in the hydrological cycle, which is the important factor driving the climate change mechanism. The tropics and subtropics holds 2/3 of the total rainfall on the Earth and are thought to drive the dynamics of atmospheric circulation involved in atmospheric heating corresponding to rainfall.
TRMM carries five instruments to investigate these mechanisms and seems to conduct global scale rainfall observations including tropical ocean region where observation points are rare. It is expected that very valuable data stored by TRMM observation for research on climate change will contribute to investigations into climate system and abnormal weather involving El Nino, and flood prediction to prevent disaster.
Tropical rainfall and atmospheric circulation
Normal years
El Nino years
Tropical rainfall: Primary gheath engine for the atmospheric circulation on the Earth. Its fixed quantitative observations are essential to the research on climate change and abnormal weather.
Visible infrared sensor can not estimate it directly.
<< Position of Precipitation Radar in the Earth Observing Mission >>
Worldfs first and only satellite board Precipitation Radar (PR)
š Various development elements were conquered.
First active phased array radar
š It contains 128 transmitter-receivers in order to perform high-speed scanning.
First international joint mission
š Satellite and algorithm development was carried out by the Japan-U.S joint system.
Low altitude orbit (350km above the Earth)
š The measure to atomic oxygen ( Surface coating: Multi-Layer Insulation(MLI) blankets with Z-93 beta-cloth )