Global Precipitation Measurement is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA as well as other international agencies to frequently (every 3 hours) measure the Earth's atmospheric moisture.
It is part of NASA's Earth Systematic Missions program and is planned to cover nearly the complete Earth. The project office is overseen by NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center and will provide global rain maps to assist researchers in studying global climate data.
The mission consists of a multiple spacecraft. The core spacecraft, used to measure precipitation structure and to provide a calibration standard for the constellation spacecraft, is scheduled for launch on July 21, 2013 and the low-inclination spacecraft for launch in November 2014 which will provide frequent precipitation measurements on a global basis.