Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) that will be installed on the core satellite of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission was delivered to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD on March 30.

DPR photo at GSFC will be provided by NASA

Photo will be provided by NASA

JAXA
Masahiro Kojima, JAXA/DPR Project Manager
Yasutoshi Hyakusoku, JAXA/DPR Project
Takeshi Miura, JAXA/DPR Project
Hiroki Kai, JAXA/DPR project

NASA HQ/GSFC
Steve Neeck, Deputy Associate Director, Flight Programs, Earth Science Division
Arthur Hou, GPM Project Scientist
Art Azarbarzin, GPM Project Manager
Candace Carlisle, GPM Deputy Project Manager

Following installation of the DPR on the GPM Core Spacecraft, NASA will perform the spacecraft system testing at GSFC, and then be shipped to Japan for launch by the H-IIA launch vehicle in FY2013.

This DPR is expected to be much more versatile than the TRMM precipitation radar (also provided by JAXA) and these two are the only radar instruments currently dedicated to precipitation measurements from space. The data obtained by the DPR along with that of the NASA GPM Microwave Imager (GMI), also flown on the Core Spacecraft, will be used as a calibration standard for rainfall estimation from the GPM constellation satellites. The GPM mission will enable global measurement of precipitation every three hours.