Provide up-to-date mrms-derived precipitation products in real time to users from the satellite community for comparison/validation and algorithm development of GPM rainfall core, constellation…

The University of Oklahoma's Office of Research Administration received a $56,332 research grant award effective February 1, 2025, with completion targeted for January 31, 2027, to support ground validation activities for NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission. Under this civilian federal grant, the university will provide up-to-date Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS)-derived precipitation products in real time to the satellite community for comparison, validation, and algorithm development purposes. The work encompasses making these products accessible through a unified, automated database with FTP and cloud access capabilities, identifying key regimes and conditions for Level-2 and Level-3 comparisons, and archiving new Ground Validation MRMS data at the Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center. The award involves no set-aside designation and represents competitive procurement.

The contract scope additionally includes processing French radar data to generate comparable precipitation reference products for France and deploying a Mobile Radar Rapid Refractivity Profiler in Norman, Oklahoma, with coordination of its sampling activities with Area Radar Research Center radars. This ground validation effort supports algorithm refinement for GPM rainfall core instruments, constellation sensors, and gridded precipitation products. The University of Oklahoma's demonstrated expertise in atmospheric sciences and established federal research partnership history position it well to execute this mission-critical validation work supporting NASA's precipitation measurement capabilities and satellite sensor algorithm development initiatives.

Provide up-to-date mrms-derived precipitation products in real time to users from the satellite community for comparison/validation and algorithm development of GPM rainfall core, constellation sensors, and gridded precipitation products with a unified and automated database and FTP/ cloud access. Identify key regimes and conditions for level-2 and level-3 comparison. Archive new GV-mrms data at the global hydrology resource center (ghrc) distributed active archive center (daac). Efforts will be pursued to process the french radar data to generate a similar precipitation reference over france deploy an mrrpro in norman and coordinate its sampling with arrc radars.