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 DISC, Giovanni 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.
Data
Thursday, September 13, 2018
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.
Beginner Resources
Training
Tutorials
Data Visualization
Data FAQ
Learn about IMERG
Sections
How do I get precipitation data for my specific location?
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 DISC, Giovanni 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.
At 11:00 UTC on 18 June 2020, FTP access to jsimpson will no longer be possible. The stoppage was originally scheduled for 1 June 2020 but due to the impacts of the CoVid19 pandemic, the end of FTP was delayed. Effective 11:00 UTC 18 June 2020, both jsimpson.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov and jsimpsonftps.eosdis.nasa.gov will provide FTPS access to GPM NRT data. FTPS will be the main, 24hr/7day retrieval protocol for getting GPM NRT data from PPS. Remember PPS implements explicit FTPS, FTPS retrieval will require your system administrators to open ports 64000-65000. You can find examples of using curl and wget for FTPS access to data on jsimpson in /NRTPUB/documentation/FTP-FTPS-Transition.pdf
The IMERG Algorithm Development Team is currently developing the next version of IMERG, V07. To help us prioritize our efforts, we have created a survey for users to identify aspects of IMERG that they consider important. Your responses will help us decide how we should focus our development effort for V07 and beyond. We deeply appreciate your responses. The survey is located at https://forms.gle/hgSMBXx7a2ScWpRSA This survey should take no more than 5 to 10 minutes. It is open through Monday, June 15.
Following a reset of the DPR to Standby Mode that occurred on April 22, 2020, the DPR Ka radar data acquisition has been restored. PPS is releasing the DPR and downstream data for distribution from April 22, 2020 - April 30, 2020. There are continuing short data outages for the radar that are being investigated and corrective measures are scheduled to be applied on May 14, 2020. PPS will be releasing May 2020 data in stages with an expected return to normal data availability soon after the corrective measures are applied. For Level-1 and Level-2 products, users should check the dataQuality...
At 07:56:59GMT (3:56:59AM EDT) on April 22, 2020 both units on the Dual Precipitation Radar reset from Observation Mode to Standby Mode. The recovery process is ongoing for the Ka radar and we expect production of all radar products to resume normal operations soon. GMI operations and data products continue to be nominal during this time. PPS Production: PPS has put all radar and downstream product distribution on hold. Once products are released users should expect to see some partial and/or fully empty radar products. PPS will provide a complete listing of the anomaly orbits once we have all...
PPS is converting all of the V7 TMPA 3B42 and 3B43 data products to the HDF5 format. These products will be available from the PPS archive after the products are produced and archived at: ftp://arthourhou.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov The data will be located under the 'trmmdata' directory along side of the current HDF4 products and also through STORM (PPS's Online Data Ordering Interface): https://storm.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov Please note that the file name will match the HDF4 file name with the exception of the file extension which will be HDF5. Also, as HDF5 uses internal compression, there will be no...