Why Is NASA Measuring Rain in America’s Rainiest Place?

The largest space agency in the world is turning its attention closer to home by measuring rainfall in the Olympic Peninsula, the rainiest place in the USA. The campaign, which will take place this winter, is part of a joint project with researchers from the University of Washington (UW). It will work in tandem with the previously-launched Global Precipitation Measurement satellite (GPM), another joint venture between NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The project is called OLYMPEX and will verify the data sent by the GPM, including information about light snowfall or tropical downpours.

What is OLYMPEX?

 OLYMPEX will begin after the first week of November and continue into the new year until the spring thaw. By combining satellite aircraft technology with ground sensors, the project will reveal information about Washington’s precipitation on unprecedented levels. Among other results, it will be able to measure exact amounts of rain and snowfall in various areas along the peninsula, pinpoint the exact height where snowfall turns into rain and even quantify the size of the drops.

Why is this useful? Well, according to research scientist Lynn McMurdie, such data can reveal insights into how the precipitation was formed. “The size of the drops tells us something about the processes that are creating the rain, and is an important quantity used in the precipitation algorithms for the satellite,” explained McMurdie. “It’s exciting to have all these things come together, measuring storm systems in all these different ways.”

The project is reliant on help from the local community, with 58 of the more than 400 active volunteers based on the Olympic Peninsula. These 400 some individuals belong to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hall and Snow Network, which source well-meaning volunteers to help start up projects such as OLYMPEX.

Why the Olympic Peninsula?

The Olympic Peninsula is an ideal location to conduct precipitation monitoring experiments. With its unique location close to the sea and the mountains and inside an active storm track, it can yield valuable information about how storm systems travel and evolve as they move over different forms of terrain, from ocean to lowlands.

Ultimately, the project aims to provide better understanding and thus better prediction about storm patterns. The volunteer initiative was first started back in 1997 in a bid to avoid a repeat of the devastating flash flood in Colorado, which claimed the lives of five people and was completely unpredicted.

The various forms of data collection involved in OLYMPEX will hopefully work together to create better predictions of storm systems and avoid catastrophes such as the one above.

The History of Rain Monitoring

Though NASA’s involvement in precipitation analysis on Earth may seem like a novel idea, the practice stretches back more than you might imagine. Indeed, even as early as the 17^th century, innovative designer and famed architect Sir Christopher Wren produced the earliest form of the tipping bucket rain-gauge (TBR), which allowed for analysis without daily human supervision. This invention formed the basis for even the most advanced systems which are being produced today, such as the newly-released Pluvio2. The article Environment Agency Builds New Technology into Rain Monitoring Network talks in more detail about the evolution of precipitation monitoring in general, and this breakthrough technology in particular.

Meanwhile, the most experienced company in the field of rain monitoring, Lambrecht GmbH, had humble beginnings themselves. The eponymous Wilhelm Lambrecht founded the company in 1859 and they have been producing ever more sophisticated meteorological instrumentation ever since, predicting torrential rain floods and avoiding catastrophes as a result.