NASA On Air: NASA's Rainfall Satellite Comes To An End After 17 Data-filled Years (6/16/2015)

  • Released Friday, June 19, 2015
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LEAD: Today (June 16, 2015) the first rainfall radar to fly in space has fallen back to Earth. After 17 productive years NASA’s TRMM rainfall satellite has run out of fuel.

  1. The SUV-sized TRMM satellite fell over the South Indian Ocean (still frame of satellite).

  2. The satellite provided hurricane forecasters with groundbreaking 3-D views of hurricanes such as Katrina in 2005.

  3. The detection of the towering 8-mile high thunderstorms indicates that a hurricane is getting stronger. TRMM also measured rainfall totals.

TAG: Most of the satellite pieces were expected to burn up due to friction in the atmosphere. The chance that a remnant would hit someone was one in 4,200 - which is quite low.

For More Information

See http://www.nasa.gov/feature/rainfall-spacecraft-re-enters-over-tropics

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Friday, June 19, 2015.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:49 PM EDT.