Work being completed at Ball Aerospace on the Company's GMI instrument. Photo courtesy of Ball Aerospace.
...to Goddard Space Flight Center for integration with NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission spacecraft. The GMI instrument will play an essential role in the worldwide measurement of precipitation and the Earth's environmental forecasting when it launches aboard the GPM space-borne Core Observatory in 2014. The GPM mission is a joint effort between NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other international partners. The GPM mission will improve climate, weather and hydrological predictions by providing more accurate precipitation measurements from space.
Ball Aerospace’s role in the GPM program included the design, development and fabrication of the GMI. Roughly eight feet tall, the conical-scan microwave instrument is a powerhouse of radiometry. GMI is designed to improve on-orbit calibration and advanced space-borne radiometry by rotating at 32 revolutions per minute, using four very stable calibration points on each revolution to calibrate the data it has scanned. This allows for temporal sampling of rainfall accumulations as well as more frequent and higher quality data collection. GMI’s design is based on successful microwave sensors built previously by Ball Aerospace including the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C), GEOSAT Follow-On (GFO) and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS).
Following launch, Ball Aerospace will provide post-delivery support at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and launch site as well as post launch support. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. Ball Aerospace company information link.