NASA's IMERG Measures Flooding Rainfall In Northwest England

NASA / JAXA - Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) logo.

Dec. 8, 2015

In addition to destructive winds measured at 81 mph (70 knots) a powerful winter storm called "Desmond" dropped record rainfall in northwest England over the past weekend of Dec. 5 and 6. The rainfall was calculated and mapped at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland using data from the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core satellite and other satellites.

 Unusually Heavy Rainfall and Flooding in Great Britain

Video above: Desmond's unusually heavy rainfall resulted in wide spread damaging floods. Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate rainfall for the period from November 30 to December 7, 2015. This analysis found that some rainfall near the Irish Sea measured over 392 mm (~15.4 inches) during this period. As much as 304 mm (~12 inches) of rain were reported to have fallen in only 24 hours. Video Credits: SSAI/NASA/Hal Pierce.

Desmond's unusually heavy rainfall resulted in wide spread damaging floods. Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate rainfall for the period from November 30 to December 7, 2015. This analysis found that some rainfall near the Irish Sea measured over 392 mm (~15.4 inches) during this period. As much as 304 mm (~12 inches) of rain were reported to have fallen in only 24 hours.

Image above: Data from NASA's IMERG were used to estimate rainfall for the period from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, 2015 and found rainfall near the Irish Sea measured over 392 mm (~15.4 inches). Up to 304 mm (~12 inches) of rain were reported to have fallen in only 24 hours. Image Credits: SSAI/NASA/Hal Pierce.

The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) creates a merged precipitation product from the GPM constellation of satellites. These satellites include DMSPs from the U.S. Department of Defense, GCOM-W from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Megha-Tropiques from the Centre National D’etudies Spatiales (CNES) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), NOAA series from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Suomi-NPP from NOAA-NASA, and MetOps from the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). All of the instruments (radiometers) onboard the constellation partners are inter-calibrated with information from the GPM Core Observatory’s GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR).

For more information about Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/main/index.html and http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gpm/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: SSAI/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Hal Pierce/Lynn Jenner.

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