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.
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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.
The PPS has completed retroprocessing IMERG V07 products for Jan. 1, 1998 to May 31, 2000. Both the Early and Late standard HDF product and the GIS products are available on the "jsimpson" GPM near real-time file servers. Please visit our data directory for a full list of product downloads and documentation. With this retroprocessing now complete, IMERG V07 products are now available from January 1998 through the present.
ANNOUNCING a NEW IMERG Web Visualization Tool: RAIN-Global (Regional Animations of IMERG in Near-realtime - Global Edition): https://storm.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov/storm/outreach/RAIN-Global.html RAIN-Global is the next-generation, 3D global, fully interactive upgrade to RAIN, a web interface that displays recent 7-day animations of precipitation rates and accumulations from IMERG-Late data, as well as cloudiness from geosynchronous IR data. Animations are updated daily for the 7-day period ending on the prior day and are available for the past 30 days. New features include: Use your mouse or...
Regions of unrealistically high values appeared in the IMERG Early and Late files starting around 00:00 UTC on 17 October 2024. Upon investigation, GPM scientists detected an operational problem on the GPM Core Observatory around 15 October 2024 that caused some corrupted CORRA data to be added to the CORRA-GMI calibration accumulator files for the IMERG Early and Late Runs. These anomalous data affected the calibration when it was next updated (on 17 October 2024). Repaired calibration files were applied at 06:00 UTC on 2 November 2024. The time spans of the unrealistic calibrations in Early...
On 18 October 2024 PPS received a corrupted IR file for 15:00 UTC, which caused all subsequent IR processing to fail and not contribute to the Early Run from 16:00 UTC on 18 October until 05:00 UTC on 20 October, and to the Late Run from 16:00 UTC on 18 October until 20:00 UTC on October 19. Subsequently, PPS manually skipped past the defective IR data file and ran all the IR data that were missed, and then reran both Early and Late for the periods listed above. These rerun products have replaced the earlier products on the fileserver. Please note the out-of-order file times to confirm which...
A server upgrade at the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) interrupted real-time transmission of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data on Sept. 11, 2024, for the F16, F17, and F18 satellites at 18:28, 19:03, and 19:36 UTC, respectively. They returned to real-time operation on Sept. 18 at 23:45 UTC, and are believed to be back-filling the missed data. Thus, the IMERG Final Run products should be unaffected, but the Early and Late Run products will lack SSMIS for this period, with some variation due to latency considerations.