Anticipating the success of using satellites to predict rainfall and potential flooding, NASA is turning to our university for its expertise in the application of the Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

Faisal Hossain, a Civil and Environmental Engineering professor, has been working for four years on the concept of using GPM, a mission that supports the use of a constellation of satellites to study precipitation on Earth. Recently he received NASA funding from two grants with collaboration with other universities because of his experience with application of space-borne rainfall data.

"There is an urgent need to share accurate data and maximize the benefits of GPM," says Hossain. "For instance, flood management agencies can better prepare for flooding disasters and those in the agriculture industry can anticipate what is needed to manage the crops over many large areas where ground-based rainfall data is missing."

Those end users, emergency workers, farmers and the like, are the benefactors NASA wants to focus on in the immediate future.

"We've done a pretty good job on a large scale with hurricane tracking, weather forecasting, and climate predictions," says Hossain. "Furthermore, it is comparatively easier to make rainfall estimations over oceans, which are homogenous, unlike land, where the terrain is highly variable.

"So for smaller scale applications on land, where our livelihood is directly affected, there's a gap in our ability to use satellite rainfall data as effectively. Our end users need better information at these smaller scales," he says.

Hossain says that current methods using satellites have not fully matured to do this now, but hold great potential, and must be utilized in order to maximize the utility of land-based systems in areas where ground-based information in rainfall is absent.

For instance, Hossain is working with colleagues from the University of Connecticut on one grant project focusing on improving the understanding of the global energy and water cycle. These cycles are intimately linked to the availability of water on land any given time and in making long-term projections about the future. Information on rainfall is critical to make a good understanding of these cycles. Satellite rainfall data from GPM can help get a global picture because no other system is capable of providing this type of information on a frequent basis.

Hossain says NASA anticipates the GPM mission to be operational in 2012. In another grant, he is working with University of Mississippi researchers as part of a consortium charged with testing GPM data over U.S areas that are flood prone.

"The goal of both these projects is to find the best methods and push the envelope of application to make the data work for society sooner rather than later for greater benefit," says Hossain.