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Home / Research / Instruments / TRMM

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite

A Workhorse for Atmospheric Research

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite provided one of the most comprehensive global records of microphysical storm measurements ever constructed that also features lightning imager data.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was a partnership between NASA and JAXA to measure precipitation and study precipitating systems across the Earth's tropical belt. TRMM was tasked with building up rainfall and latent heating distributions across the tropics to improve our understanding of the global energy and water cycles, and determining how changes in tropical precipitation affect general circulation. These two goals from the 1986 TRMM science team meeting were motivated by a need to improve the global weather and climate models of the era. TRMM was also intended to serve as a platform for cross-calibration with other instruments (specifically operational geostationary satellites), and to study the effects of rainfall on the structure of the upper ocean.

The TRMM satellite was launched into a low Earth orbit in late 1997 and operated until April 2015. The initial TRMM orbit had an inclination of 35 degrees and an altitude of ~350 km, but it was later decided to boost TRMM to ~402 km altitude to extend its mission life. TRMM had an orbital period of ~90 minutes, allowing it to complete approximately 16 orbits per day. The science payload on the TRMM satellite included a Precipitation Radar (PR), a Microwave Imager (TMI), a Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS), and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). TRMM also hosted an Earth energy budget instrument known as CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System), but this instrument failed 9 months into the TRMM mission.

The TRMM PR was the first rain radar in space. It provided 3D measurements of precipitation structure throughout its narrow (~215 km wide) swath. The TMI was a passive multichannel dual-polarized microwave radiometer built on the heritage of previous microwave imagers (i.e., SSM/I). It sampled 5 discrete channels relevant to precipitation microphysics that included 10.7 GHz, 19.4 GHz, 21.3 GHz, 37.0 GHz, and 8.85 GHz. The VIRS instrument was a scanning radiometer that operated in 5 common spectral bands for operational geostationary weather satellites: 0.63 um ("red"), 1.6 um ("snow / ice"), 3.75 um ("shortwave IR"), 10.8 um ("longwave IR"), and 12 um ("dirty longwave IR window").

The final instrument on TRMM - the LIS - was an optical lightning detector capable to measuring total lightning (intracloud lightning + cloud-to-ground lightning) across the TRMM domain. As a lightning imager, LIS sensed lightning from transient pulses of optical energy illuminating the cloud tops. It had a nominal frame rate of 500 frames per second and a spatial resolution of ~5 km. LIS has been used to document the distribution of lightning and thunderstorms across the tropics, and to correlate lightning flash rates with microphysical thunderstorm measurements provided by the other TRMM instruments.

My work with TRMM has been focused on using LIS to study lightning physics from space and making connections between lightning phenomenology and thunderstorm microphysics. LIS records the evolution of every lightning flash it observes at 500 FPS. These measurements can be used to construct light curves for CG and IC flashes or to document the lateral development of long horizontal lightning channels. The coincident TRMM instruments make it possible to investigate how the precipitation structure of the parent thunderstorm determines how a LIS flash evolves (for example, horizontally extensive lightning occurring in regions of stratiform rain). In this way, TRMM with its LIS instrument provides a global observatory for lightning physics.

Publications

  • Peterson, M. J. and S. Rudlosky, 2018: The time evolution of optical lightning flashes. J. Geophys. Res., 124, 1, 333-349.

  • Peterson, M. J., S. Rudlosky, and W. Deierling, 2018: Mapping the lateral development of lightning flashes from orbit. J. Geophys. Res., 123, 17, 9674-9687.

  • Peterson, M. J., W. Deierling, C. Liu, D. Mach, C. Kalb, 2018: A TRMM assessment of the composition of the generator current that supplies the Global Electric Circuit. J. Geophys. Res., 123, 15, 8208-8220.

  • Peterson, M. J., W. Deierling, C. Liu, D. Mach, C. Kalb, 2018: Retrieving global Wilson currents from electrified clouds using satellite passive microwave observations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 35, 7, 1487-1503.

  • Peterson, M. J., S. Rudlosky, and W. Deierling, 2017: The evolution and structure of extreme optical lightning flashes. J. Geophys. Res., 122, 24, 13,370-13,386.

  • Peterson, M. J., W. Deierling, C. Liu, D. Mach, C. Kalb, 2017: A TRMM/GPM retrieval of the mean generator current for the Global Electric Circuit, J. Geophys. Res., 122, 27, 10,025-10,049.

  • Rudlosky, S., M. Peterson, and D. Kahn, 2017: GLD360 Performance relative to TRMM/LIS. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 34, 1307-1322.

  • Peterson, M. J., W. Deierling, C. Liu, D. Mach, C. Kalb, 2016: The properties of optical lightning flashes and the clouds they illuminate. J. Geophys. Res., 122, 116, 423-442.

  • Peterson, M. J., C. Liu, D. Mach, W. Deierling, C. Kalb, 2015: A method of estimating electric fields above electrified clouds from passive microwave observations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 32,8, 1429-1446.

  • Peterson, M. J. and C. Liu, 2013: Characteristics of Lightning Flashes with Exceptional Illuminated Areas, Durations, and Optical Powers and Surrounding Storm Properties in the Tropics and Inner Subtropics, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 11,727-11,740, doi: 10.1002/jgrd.50715

  • Peterson, M. J. and C. Liu, 2011: Global statistics of lightning in anvil and stratiform regions over the tropics and subtropics observed by TRMM, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 116, D23, doi: 10.1029/2011JD015908.