Global precipitation and soil moisture in North America and Asia in July 2014, time-lapse animation. Rainfall, shown here as moving bands of reds and yellows, is tracked every 30 minutes across most of the earth by Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), an international satellite mission to provide observations of rain and snow worldwide. The base maps of the continents change colour indicating the available moisture in the surface soils. This information is useful for agricultural management, especially in countries with limited numbers of weather stations.