June 8 (UPI) -- New satellite images from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission offers a visualization of the extreme rainfall that has accumulated in Florida over the past week.
GPM is a joint mission between NASA and Japan's space agency JAXA. It consists of a GPM core observatory satellite and a constellation of cooperating probes.
As the GPM core observatory satellite passed above South Florida on Wednesday, its Microwave Imager and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar instruments surveyed the intensity of precipitation inside the region's massive storms systems.
Radar data from the satellite allowed NASA scientists to build 3D vertical models of the storms, one of which was measured dropping rain at a rate of 7.5 inches per day. The observations showed several of the storm clouds topped out 9.3 miles above Earth's surface, with the heaviest precipitation falling from clouds stretching 9.5 miles into the atmosphere.
More than 19 inches of rain has fallen on southeastern Florida since June 1.
The National Weather Service confirmed single-day rainfall totals broke records in Four Lauderdale and Naples on Wednesday.
"The upper level trough/low [pressure area] that has been slowly moving through the Gulf this week has been absorbed into the larger east coast trough this morning as it moves across North Florida and Georgia," NWS officials reported. "A broad surface trough extends across the same region."
