NASA Hosts Prelaunch Media Events for Global Precipitation Mission

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Jan 06, 2014, 01:10 ET

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a series of media events Monday, Jan. 27, in advance of the February launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory from Japan. The events will be held at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

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GPM is an international satellite mission led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will provide next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide. GPM data also will contribute to climate research and the forecasting of extreme weather events such as floods and hurricanes.

The GPM Core Observatory is scheduled to lift off Feb. 27, between 1:07 and 3:07 p.m. EST, from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.

Media events include briefings on the GPM mission and science. Briefing panelists are:
-- Steven Neeck, deputy associate director, flight program, Earth Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Masahiro Kojima, GPM Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar project manager, JAXA, Tsukuba
-- Art Azarbarzin, GPM project manager, Goddard
-- Ramesh Kakar, GPM program scientist, Headquarters
-- Gail Skofronick-Jackson, GPM deputy project scientist, Goddard
-- Riko Oki, GPM project scientist, JAXA

The briefings will begin at 1 p.m., Jan. 27, and can be seen on NASA Television and the agency's website. Media may ask questions from participating agency centers by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must send an email providing name, affiliation and telephone number to Rob Gutro at [email protected] or 301-286-8955 by 11 a.m., Jan. 27.

Other media events at Goddard begin at 11 a.m. with a tour of the GPM control rooms followed by the screening of the new movie "Water Falls," which highlights the science behind the GPM mission projected onto the unique "Science on a Sphere" platform. "Water Falls" debuts at select U.S. science centers in late January.

To attend these GPM events, media must register in advance with the Goddard newsroom by contacting Ellen Gray at 301-286-1950 or [email protected], or Ed Campion at 301-286-0697 or [email protected]. U.S. citizens must register by noon, Thursday, Jan. 16. Foreign nationals must register by noon, Monday, Jan. 13.

For more information about the GPM mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/gpm

For more information about "Water Falls," visit: http://pmm.nasa.gov/water-falls

SOURCE NASA