Since 1992, the Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB) of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) has experimentally used the operational Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) rain rate product to produce a rainfall potential for tropical disturbances expected to make landfall within the next 24 hours.

The 1998 launch of the first AMSU aboard NOAA-15 now provides an additional tool to calculate rainfall potential from tropical disturbances worldwide.