Precipitation Data Directory | NASA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (original) (raw)
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Precipitation Data Directory
Important Notes & Links
Use of the PPS data servers and STORM requires you to first register your email address.
As of July 7, 2023, GPM Level 2 and 3 products and filenames have been updated to V07B. IMERG Early and Late have been updated to V06D, and IMERG Final Run is undergoing retrospective processing and is being updated to V07. Learn more.
As of January 19, 2021, FTP access to the GPM research data server "arthurhou" is no longer available, and you must use either FTPS or HTTPS to access GPM research data.
Geophysical parameters that have been spatially and/or temporally resampled from Level 1 or Level 2 data.
Derived geophysical parameters at the same resolution and location as those of the Level 1 data.
As of the GPM Version 6 reprocessing cycle, the radars on both the TRMM and GPM satellites have their data products written in the HDF5 file format. Also as of Version 6 the research products are stored in the same FTP archive for both satellites, ftp://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The FTP archive is organized into directories whose names are "yyyy/mm/dd/radar/" where yyyy, mm, and dd are the four-digit year and the two-digit month and day of month, respectively. In prior reprocessing cycles, TRMM and GPM data products were stored in different FTP archives. As of May 2020, PPS distributes near-realtime GPM data via FTPS and HTTPS rather than FTP. A similar switch is expected to occur with research data products later in 2020.
Level 1A: Reconstructed, unprocessed instrument data at full resolution, time referenced, and annotated with ancillary information, including radiometric and geometric calibration coefficients and georeferencing parameters (i.e., platform ephemeris), computed and appended, but not applied, to Level 0 data.
Level 1B: Radiometrically corrected and geolocated Level 1A data that have been processed to sensor units..
Level 1C: Common intercalibrated brightness temperature (Tc) products using the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) Level 1B as the reference standard.
IMERG Land-Sea Mask Binary
This file is the percent water surface coverage file used for the IMERG products in binary format. It is on a 0.1°x0.1° grid as REAL*4 (3600,1800). The orientation is the same as the IMERG data. The file displays percent water surface coverage with 100% = all water and 0% = all land.
Land sea is also called land ocean or land water. Typical percentage thresholds used to define sea are 100% (strictly open water) or 75% (including sea-ward coast areas). Typical percentages used to define strictly land are 25% or 15%; too low a percentage masks out humid regions that have many lakes and reservoirs. Users should inspect the resulting masks to check that they correspond to the expected map.
Data Organization:
Binary file written in Fortran as IEEE big-endian REAL*4 (3600,1800). The upper left-hand corner of the first grid box is at (90°N , 0°E) with longitude being the most rapidly varying index.
Data Download URL
- Download (Binary .gz 4.8 MB)
IMERG Land-Sea Mask NetCDF
This file is the percent water surface coverage file used for the IMERG products. It is on a 0.1°x0.1° grid as REAL*4 (3600,1800). The orientation is the same as the IMERG data. The file displays percent water surface coverage with 100% = all water and 0% = all land.
Land sea is also called land ocean or land water. Typical percentage thresholds used to define sea are 100% (strictly open water) or 75% (including sea-ward coast areas). Typical percentages used to define strictly land are 25% or 15%; too low a percentage masks out humid regions that have many lakes and reservoirs. Users should inspect the resulting masks to check that they correspond to the expected map.
Data Download URL
- Download (.netcdf .gz 4.6 MB)
TRMM TMPA 3B42/43 Land Sea Mask
This file is the percent water surface coverage file used for the TRMM 3B42/43 products, in NetCDF format. It is on a 0.25°x0.25° grid as REAL*4 (1440,720). The orientation is the same as the 3B42/3B43 data. The file displays percent water surface coverage with 100% = all water and 0% = all land.
Land sea is also called land ocean or land water. Typical percentage thresholds used to define sea are 100% (strictly open water) or 75% (including sea-ward coast areas). Typical percentages used to define strictly land are 25% or 15%; too low a percentage masks out humid regions that have many lakes and reservoirs. Users should inspect the resulting masks to check that they correspond to the expected map.
Data Download URL
- TMPA_Mask.nc.zip (zipped .netCDF file, 355KB)
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), is a space based instrument used to detect the distribution and variability of total lightning (cloud-to-cloud, intracloud, and cloud-to-ground lightning) that occurs in the tropical regions of the globe.
Resolution: 3 - 6 km
Dates: 1/1/1998 - 4/8/2015
Level 3 LIS Annual / Seasonal / Monthly Browse
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is an instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission satellite (TRMM) used to detect the distribution and variability of total lightning occurring in the Earth's tropical and subtropical regions. This information can be used for severe storm detection and analysis, and also for lightning-atmosphere interaction studies. The LIS instrument makes measurements during both day and night with high detection efficiency.
Please include the following citation in your publications:
Blakeslee, Richard. 1998. Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Science Data [indicate subset used]. Dataset available online from the NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center DAAC, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/LIS/LIS/DATA201
Regions:
40° N-S
Level 2 LIS Science Data
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) is an instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission satellite (TRMM) used to detect the distribution and variability of total lightning occurring in the Earth's tropical and subtropical regions. This information can be used for severe storm detection and analysis, and also for lightning-atmosphere interaction studies. The LIS instrument makes measurements during both day and night with high detection efficiency.
Please include the following citation in your publications:
Blakeslee, Richard. 1998. Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Science Data [indicate subset used]. Dataset available online from the NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center DAAC, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/LIS/LIS/DATA201
Regions:
Orbital 40° N-S,
Level 1B LIS Backgrounds
Lightning Imaging Sensor Background Images. These background images created approximately one to two seconds apart provide the scene on which lightning can be plotted. When using the LIS/OTD Read Software, an entire orbits worth of background images can be displayed in a simple animation to allow a quick way to see if interesting cloud systems (hurricanes, MCSs, Frontal systems, etc.) were in the field of view.
Please include the following citation in your publications:
Blakeslee, Richard. 2010. Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Backgrounds [indicate subset used]. Dataset available online from the NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center DAAC, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A..
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/LIS/LIS/DATA101
The Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) sensor is one of the five instruments on the TRMM satellite. The VIRS instrument has a swath width of 720 km and a horizontal resolution of 2 km at nadir. VIRS is similar to the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) now in operation on polar-orbital environmental satellites.
VIRS Channels
| Channel | SpectralRegion | Wavelength (µm) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visible | 0.63 |
| 2 | Near Infrared | 1.60 |
| 3 | Near Infrared | 3.75 |
| 4 | Near Infrared | 10.8 |
| 5 | Infrared | 12.0 |
Resolution: 2.4km
Dates: 12/20/1997 - 4/8/2015
TRMM VIIRS Level 1B01 Calibrated Radiance Product
The TRMM Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) Level 1B Calibrated Radiance Product (1B01) contains calibrated radiances and auxiliary geolocation information from the five channels of the VIRS instrument, for each pixel of each scan. The data are stored in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), which includes both core and product specific metadata applicable to the VIRS measurements. A file contains a single orbit of data with a file size of about 95 MB. The EOSDIS "swath" structure is used to accommodate the actual geophysical data arrays. There are 16 files of VIRS 1B01 data produced per day.
For channels 1 and 2, Level 1B radiances are derived from the Level 1A (1A01) sensor counts by computing calibration parameters (gain and offset) derived from the counts registered during space and solar and/or lunar views. New calibration parameters are produced every one to four weeks. Channels 3, 4, and 5 are calibrated using the internal blackbody and the space view. These calibration parameters, together with a quadratic term determined pre-launch, are used to generate a counts vs. radiance curve for each band, which is then used to convert the earth-view pixel counts to spectral radiances.
Geolocation and channel data are written out for each pixel along the scan, whereas the time stamp, scan status (containing scan quality information), navigation, calibration coefficients, and solar/satellite geometry are specified on a per-scan basis. There are in general 18,026 scans along the orbit pre-boost and 18,223 post-boost, with each scan consisting of 261 pixels. The scan width is about 720 km pre-boost and 833 km post-boost.
TRMM VIIRS Level 1A01
The Level-1A product is a simple concatenation of Level-0 data with a Header, which could easily be reversed back to Level-0. Level-1A remains in a binary format and is not in HDF. The Level-1B format groups like data together.
The Level-1A product consists of two files: the Level-1A Product file and the SFDU header file. The Level-1A Product file, ”1A-01,” is a concatenation of Header record, Spacecraft Attitude packets, VIRS Housekeeping Data packets, VIRS Science Data packets, QACs, and an MDUL. The SFDU header is a separate file whose format is specified in the Interface Control Document Between EOSDIS Core System (ECS) and TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS) for the ECS Project.
NCEP/CPC Level 3 Merged Infrared Brightness Temperatures
This gridded merged multi-satellite geostationary infrared (IR) brightness temperature product originates from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and the National Weather Service (NWS) and are hosted by NASA’s Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).
The datasets contain IR brightness temperature data (equivalent blackbody temps), merged from the European, Japanese, and U.S. geostationary satellites that have been active over the product’s period of record (METEOSAT-5/7/8/9/10, GMS-5/MTSat-1R/2/Himawari-8, and GOES-8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16), and gridded to 4-km every half hour on the latitude band 60°S-60°N.
Within GPM, this dataset is used to compute IR precipitation estimates that are input to NASA’s IMERG product.
Documentation:
- NASA GES DISC README Document for the NOAA NCEP/CPC Half Hourly 4km Global (60S - 60N) Merged IR
- Geo-IR satellites contained in the Merged 4-km IR Tb dataset provided by NOAA/NWS/CPC
Regions:
60°S-60°N
Temporal Coverage:
2000 - Present
Spatial Resolution:
4km