Some Outstanding Products from the GATE Convection Data Set: A Personal View

Concerning our knowledge of convective clouds and their important processes, GATE marks a watershed between "seeing through a glass darkly" and "then face to face" in some of the most vital aspects of convective systems. Two main areas will be discussed here, namely the interactions of observations and modeling in documentation of slow and fast-moving squall lines, for which the publications began in the 70's, and the use of the GATE ships' radar data set as the basis for demonstrating that tropical rainfall could be measured from space, resulting in the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The TRMM satellite was launched in 1997, with the enabling analyses reaching publication in the 1980's.