NASA released a global map of rain and snow moving across the planet over the past six months. (NASA Goddard)

NASA has releasedaglobal map of rain and snow traveling across the planetover the past six months the first from anewmission that unites data from a dozenweather-monitoring satellites.

Themission takes a snapshot of the weather across Earth every 30 minutes, but itmeasures morethan cloud tops and temperature, which is what we typically see on satellite imagery. Ithas the ability to look under theclouds and see what the precipitation is doing, says George Huffman, the deputy project scientist for the mission.This is a new effort, and is considerably more difficult than the cloud maps.

One year ago, NASA launched the Global Precipitation Measurement missions Core Observatory satellite, which acts tosynchronizeprecipitation measurements across 12satellites operated by international partners, including the U.S., Japan, France, India and Europe. With the GPM core observatory acting as an anchor to allow us to cross-calibrate data from a very diverse set of satellite measurements from our international and interagency partners, we can clearly see the big picture in terms of where its raining or snowing across the globe,said Ramesh Kakar, GPM program scientist.

Thanks to the Core Observatory, scientists can now collect and study continuousprecipitation patterns extending over nearly the entire globe, from 60 degrees North to 60 South a larger area than previously monitored. In particular, I really appreciated looking at the Southern Ocean, said Huffman. You see the numerous swirls with very little land to get in the way, and as a result these storms just swirl around Antarctica continually.

The mission offers more than just high-latitude storm monitoring. It has also captured 3-D images of snow storms across the Mid-Atlantic this month. The GPM Core Observatory carries two instruments that show the location and intensity of rain and snow, which constitutes a crucial part of the storm structure and helps to define how it will develop, writes NASA. The GPM Microwave Imager sees through the tops of clouds to observe how much and where precipitation occurs, while the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar observes precise details of precipitation in three dimensions.

NASA shared video of the3-D imagescaptured during thePresidents Day storm on Feb. 16-17, which gave the D.C.metro anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of snow, plus an extra day off on Tuesday for some. The video shows a swath of the storm over the Mid-Atlantic. Blue indicates snow, and colors from green to red indicate rain. Its interesting to see how the instrument captures the areas of all snow, and where precipitation is starting to fall as snow, but then melts to rain. The imagery shows great variation in precipitation types over the southeastern United States, writes NASA.

NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory captured a 3-D image of a snow storm that covered large portions of Kentucky, southwestern West Virginia and northwestern North Carolina on Feb. 17. (NASA Goddard)

The mission also captured 3-D imagery of our Feb. 21 winter storm which, before transitioning over to sleet and rain, ended up giving our northern suburbs more snow than was expected.

NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory flew over a snow storm that covered most of the Washington, D.C., metro area leaving as much as nine inches of snow in some of the surrounding suburbs on Feb. 21. (NASA Goddard)

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Weather Gang: NASA satellite captures global precipitation, 3-D views of D.C. winter storms (Video)