The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E), on board the Aqua satellite launched May 4, 2002, is the newest microwave sensor used for rainfall estimation. Here we test and present the initial AMSR-E estimates. We are starting with slight modifications of the current (V5) and upcoming (V6) releases of official TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) algorithm as the initial AMSR-E algorithm, as the frequencies and resolutions of these two instruments are similar.. These algorithms use the Goddard Profiling Algorithm (GPROF) framework, which can also provide vertical hydrometeor profiles with the associated latent heating estimates. It will be important to check the initial AMSR-E estimates to insure that the estimates are realistic, especially over snow-covered land outside the TRMM observation latitudes. In particular, comparisons with an AMSR-E validation rain gauge network installed in the vicinity of Iowa City, IA, are presented along with comparisons with existing rain gauge, radar, and other satellite estimates.