NASA Views Severe Rain Storms Over Western Saudi Arabia

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As intense rain storms moved into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21, NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite analyzed the severe storms.

As intense rain storms moved into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21, NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite analyzed the severe storms.

Heavy downpours caused schools and universities to close and the General Authority of Meteorology and Environment Protection predicted that heavy rain will continue for a couple days.     

NASA's GPM Core Observatory satellite measures precipitation from space with the first space-borne Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a multi-channel GPM Microwave Imager (GMI). The satellite passed over western Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21, 2017 at 0123 UTC (Nov. 20 at 8:23 p.m. EST). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) collected data that revealed heavy rain rates within powerful storms that were headed toward Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Read more at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Image: This 3-D image of rainfall in storms over western Saudi Arabia on Nov. 21 was created using GPM DPR's Ku Band instrument. GPM found that a few storm tops over the Red Sea were reaching heights above 10 km (6.2 miles). (Credits: NASA/JAXA, Hal Pierce)