Widespread flooding has recently caused the deaths of dozens of people in southern Thailand. Frequent and persistent downpours have resulted in record rainfall totals and NASA calculated rainfall over the region from January 5 to January 12, 2017.
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite is part of a constellation of satellites that can measure rainfall from space. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the data is input into NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data product.
Widespread flooding has recently caused the deaths of dozens of people in southern Thailand. Frequent and persistent downpours have resulted in record rainfall totals and NASA calculated rainfall over the region from January 5 to January 12, 2017.
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite is part of a constellation of satellites that can measure rainfall from space. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the data is input into NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data product.
IMERG was used to estimate the total amount of rain that fell over southern Thailand over the week. Extreme rainfall totals of over 700 mm (27.6 inches) were found over the Gulf of Thailand. The highest rainfall total estimates over land were greater than 500 mm (19.7 inches) on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula in the Bang Saphan District.
Rainfall has greatly increased over Thailand during this La Nina year. Very low rainfall totals occurred over Thailand during last year's El Nino event. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a rainfall anomaly analysis was made by comparing the former Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM calibrated rainfall climatology to "near real-time" Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis data collected over a thirty day period.
Photo: NASA calculated rainfall over southern Thailand from Jan. 5 to 12, 2017. Extreme rainfall totals of over 700 mm (27.6 inches) were found over the Gulf of Thailand. Highest totals over land were greater than 500 mm (19.7 inches) on the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula in the Bang Saphan District.
Photo Credit: NASA / JAXA, Hal Pierce
