IMERG Early Run Example January 24th, 2020

Data

Precipitation data from the GPM and TRMM missions are made available free to the public in a variety of formats from several sources at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This section outlines the different types of data available, the levels of processing, the sources to download the data, and some helpful tips for utilizing precipitation data in your research.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get precipitation data for my specific location?

There are several sources for downloading and viewing data which allow you to subset the data to only include specific parameters and/or geographic locations. These include the GES DISCGiovanni and STORM. In Giovanni you can obtain data for a specific country, U.S. state, or watershed by using the "Show Shapes" option in the "Select Region" pane.

What happened to the TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA / 3B4x) data products?

The TRMM satellilte has been decommissioned and stopped collecting data in April 2015. The transition from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data products to the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission products has completed as of August 2019. The GPM IMERG dataset now includes TRMM-era data from June 2000 to the present, and other TRMM-era data has been reprocessed with GPM-era algorithms and is now available on the GPM FTP servers. TMPA data production ended as of December 31st, 2019 and the TRMMOpen FTP server has been shut down. Historical TMPA data is still available to download from the NASA GES DISC at: https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets?keywords=TMPA&page=1

Click here for more details on the transition from TMPA to IMERG. 

Am I allowed to use GPM data for my research?

Yes, in line with NASA's general data policy. Please refer to the GPM Data Policy for further details.

How do I give credit for using GPM data?
Where can I find detailed documentation on the precipitation algorithms?

Browse our directory of GPM & TRMM data products to locate your desired algorithm, then click on the links in the algorithm description under "Documentation". All documentation is also available at the Precipitation Processing System website

What is the spatial and temporal resolution of GPM data?

The resolution of Level 0, 1, and 2 data is determined by the footprint size and observation interval of the sensors involved.  Level 3 products are given a grid spacing that is driven by the typical footprint size of the input data sets.

For our popular multi-satellite GPM IMERG data products, the spatial resolution is 0.1° x 0.1° (or roughly 10km x 10km) with a 30 minute temporal resolution.

Visit the directory of GPM & TRMM data products for details on the resolution of each specific products.

Can I use images or videos from this site or other NASA websites?

For questions about permission for using NASA images and videos, please refer to NASA's official Media Usage Guidelines. For any additional questions please contact bert.ulrich@nasa.gov

Is it possible to subset GPM data?

There are several sources for downloading and viewing data which allow you to subset the data to only include specific parameters and/or geographic locations. These include the GES DISCGiovanni and STORM. In Giovanni you can obtain data for a specific country, U.S. state, or watershed by using the "Show Shapes" option in the "Select Region" pane.

What is the difference between "Near Real-time" (NRT) and "Production" / "Research" data?

GPM data products can be divided into two groups (near real-time and production) depending on how soon they are created after the satellite collects the observations. For applications such as weather, flood, and crop forecasting that need precipitation estimates as soon as possible, near real-time data products are most appropriate.  GPM near real-time (GMI & DPR) products are generally available within a few hours of observation.  For all other applications, production data products are generally the best data sets to use because additional or improved inputs are used to increase accuracy.  These other inputs are only made available several days, or in some cases, several months, after the satellite observations are taken, and the production data sets are computed after all data have arrived, making possible a more careful analysis.

For the GPM IMERG dataset, IMERG Early and Late Runs are the near real-time products, while IMERG Final Run is the research / production product. Click here to learn more about the differences between IMERG Early, Late and Final. 

We are contacting you to report an problem where Version 4 GPM data products could not be read using the 4.2.2.1 version of netCDF. Users are recommended to upgrade to netCDF 4.3.3.1 or later. Any software (OPeNDAP, etc.) that uses older than netCDF Version 4.3.3.1 (what we tested, versions earlier in the 4.3 series may also work) will not be able to read GPM DF5 Version 4 data.
The PPS (Precipitation Processing System) will be down today, June 07, 2016 from 8:00am -14:00pm EDT (12:00 - 18:00 UTC). for scheduled maintenance. During this time all data transfers between PPS source and its consumer systems (GDAAC/DISC) as well as Science User services (FTP and STORM access) will be unavailable. You will be informed when PPS systems become available. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
With the GPM Version 04 Update, PPS is also rolling out an interactive GPM NRT Viewer. This tool displays NRT Level 1C GMI, Level 2A GPROF, and Level 2A DPR data as soon as it is available in the NRT archive on a three-dimensional globe. Fields such as brightness temperature and surface precipitation rate are available for visualization, comparison, and improved data acquisition decision-making. You may Leave it running continuously as data refreshes with each segment, or use the navigation dropdown to look at specific events and time periods from the previous twelve hours. This viewer is...
Due to continuing, intermittent anomalies in the F17 SSMIS 37v channel, starting from April 13, 2016 (Orbit # 48713 : 18:29:36) and forward all 1C F17 products will flag the 37V channel as bad data and the Brightness Temperatures will be missing. We apologize for any inconvenience or problems that this may cause and appreciate your understanding and patience. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Below are a few recent satellite anomalies of note that may have affected the quality of the IMERG precipitation products. 10 May 2016: The data flow from the Himawari-8 GEO satellite was interrupted for 57 hours, 7 May, 05 UTC – 9 May, 14 UTC and during that time there is a continuous zone of missing values in the IR precipitation data in the center of the Himawari-8 sector (over Japan), where data from the adjoining GEO satellites are unable to fill the gap. The IR-based displacement vectors were therefore computed using the standard fallback of spatial interpolation. 20 April 2016...

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