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According to Dr. Christian Kummerow, TRMM Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the Hughes-built microwave imager is "providing exceptional resolution of storm systems. TRMM's microwave imager has better spatial resolution and a new lower frequency channel than previous instruments."

The TRMM microwave imager (TMI) is Hughes' second imager and draws upon the proven technology established in Hughes' first imager, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager, launched a decade ago to support the U.S. Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

"The success of TMI is one of which we are quite proud," said Michael J. Gianelli, vice president and general manager of government operations at Hughes Space and Communications Company. "Early detection of storm variations is vital to saving human lives, and Hughes has dedicated technologists working to support our NASA and NOAA customers to save life and property."

TMI was designed to provide space and weather agencies with valuable insight into meteorological phenomena and their influence over unusual ocean patterns, such as the "El Niño" system. TMI is also capable of tracking tropical storms, cloud and soil moisture levels, land and sea surface temperatures, wave height, and sea surface wind speeds. TMI measures tropical rainfall characteristics from space by detecting microwave energy in the form of brightness temperatures from Earth's surface and atmosphere.

Hughes is currently developing a next-generation microwave sensor, the Conical Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder (CMIS). CMIS will be the first of its kind to be carried on a U.S. civil weather satellite, and, in addition to the imaging capabilities of the TMI, will also be capable of measuring rain rate, wind speed and direction over the ocean, the amount of water in clouds, and soil moisture. The on-board sounder provides a vertical picture through the atmosphere, showing temperature and humidity profiles at various altitudes. The difference is like taking a two-dimensional picture and making it three-dimensional.

Hughes Space and Communications Company, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation, is the world's leading manufacturer of geostationary commercial communications satellites, and is also a major supplier of spacecraft and equipment to the United States government, and a builder of weather satellites for the United States and Japan. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.