Precipitation information from the first six months of the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory mission now is fully available to the public. Launched from Japan in February, the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission works with international partner satellites to produce precise and standardized data sets on worldwide rainfall, snowfall and other precipitation. The data can be used to improve forecasts of extreme weather events like floods and help decision makers worldwide better manage water resources. Also, Earthquake data from the air, Next ISS crew trains, Talking STEM with students and OSIRIS-REx time capsule.

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GPM data released

Precipitation information from the first six months of the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory mission now is fully available to the public. Launched from Japan in February, the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission works with international partner satellites to produce precise and standardized data sets on worldwide rainfall, snowfall and other precipitation. The data can be used to improve forecasts of extreme weather events like floods and help decision makers worldwide better manage water resources.

Earthquake data from the air

On August 29, a NASA aircraft outfitted with the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar system, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, conducted an airborne survey of earthquake fault displacements in the Napa Valley area of Northern California, recently hit by a 6-point-oh magnitude quake. The radar system can measure movements of the ground of less than half an inch, from an altitude of almost eight miles. A comparison of data from this flight and a previous mission over the same area could lead to better predictions of where aftershocks might occur following an earthquake.

Next ISS crew trains

In Star City, Russia the Expedition 41/42 crew, including NASA’s Barry “Butch” Wilmore, conducted final qualification training and other activities at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in preparation for its flight in late September to the International Space Station. Wilmore, Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev and Flight Engineer Elena Serova, are scheduled for a six-month mission aboard the ISS.

Talking STEM with students

On September 2, Stennis Space Center hosted more than two hundred students at the INFINITY Science Center in Pearlington, Mississippi for a long-distance question and answer session with NASA’s Steve Swanson and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman — currently orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 40 crew. The talk was one in a series with educational organizations to promote science, technology, engineering and math, commonly referred to as STEM education.

OSIRIS-REx time capsule

NASA is inviting the public worldwide to submit short messages and images on social media that could be included in a time capsule on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft when it launches to an asteroid in 2016. Submissions can be made until September 30 and should be about solar system exploration in 2014 and predictions about exploration activities in 2023 – the year the spacecraft is scheduled to return samples of asteroid Bennu to Earth. 50 tweets and 50 images will be placed in the time capsule. For more details, go to www.asteroidmission.org/timecapsule.

And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …