As per the recommendation stated in the NRC Report “NOAA’s Role in Space-based Precipitation Estimation and Application”, NOAA has formed a Steering Group (SG) on space based precipitation missions. The main purpose of this SG is to guide/inform NOAA leadership on NOAA’s role in the NASA-led international Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission. “Given his expertise in precipitation research and his current tie with the TRMM/GPM community, Dr. Jonathan Gourley would be a valuable asset for the group and we think he could make an important contribution to shape NOAA’s R&D priorities for the NASA’s GPM mission”, said the SG co-chair Robert Cifelli, Ralph Ferraro, and Pingping Xie. (Jan 6, 2012)