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. 

PPS will replace GPM Ka/Ku L1B products from JAXA and will reprocess the affected data including Level 2 and 3 data. If you have already obtained products with orbit#24203 from our archive or through a standing order, etc., please discard and use the replacement products when available. PPS will replace the following GPM Ka/Ku L1B data: GPMCOR_KAR_1806020955_1128_024203_1BS_DAB_05B.h5 GPMCOR_KUR_1806020955_1128_024203_1BS_DUB_05B.h5 PPS will reprocess the affected L2-3 downstream products. If you have obtained any of these products from our archive or through a Standing Order, etc., please...
PPS received replacement GPM Ka/Ku L1B products from JAXA and will reprocess the affected data including Level 2 and 3 data. If you have already obtained products with orbit#23969 from our archive or through a standing order, etc., please discard and use the replacement products. PPS has replaced the following GPM Ka/Ku L1B data: GPMCOR_KUR_1805180849_1022_023969_1BS_DUB_05A.h5 GPMCOR_KAR_1805180849_1022_023969_1BS_DAB_05A.h5 PPS will reprocess the following L2-3 downstream products: 2AKa 2A.GPM.Ka.V7-20170308.20180518-S084951-E102226.023969.V05A.HDF5 2AKu 2A.GPM.Ku.V7-20170308.20180518...
The STORM Swath-Based Analysis Tool ( https://storm.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov/storm/Analysis.jsp ) is a better way to explore and order targeted Level 2 data. Select one or more instruments from a list going back to the beginning of the TRMM mission, provide a date range, and input a geographic region of interest. Once you hit "Get Granules for Chart," a graph will appear and data points will begin to display. These points represent the mean precipitation rate value for all of the pixels for that orbit of that instrument over that geographic region. Once the graph loading is paused or complete...
PPS will start to process the TRMM TMI level 2 and level 3 GPROF products, the core member of the TRMM era GPROF products family, on Thursday, April 19, 2018. Similar to the early released TRMM era AMSRE, AMSUB, SSMI, MHS, SSMIS, AMSR2 and ATMS level 2 and level 3 products, all level 2 and level 3 GPROF products will be produced as GPM version V05, all products are in HDF5 format, all product names will use the GPM naming convention and the produced data will appear both in STORM: https://storm.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov/storm/ and on "arthurhou": ftp://arthurhou.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov/ after these are...
PPS received replacement GPM Ka/Ku L1B (22779,22780,22786) products from JAXA and will reprocess the affected data including Level 2 and 3 data. If you have already obtained products with orbit# 22779,22780,22786 from our archive or through a standing order, etc., please discard and use the replacement products. PPS has replaced the following GPM Ka/Ku L1B data: GPMCOR_KUR_1803022048_2221_022779_1BS_DUB_05A.h5 GPMCOR_KAR_1803022048_2221_022779_1BS_DAB_05A.h5 GPMCOR_KUR_1803022221_2353_022780_1BS_DUB_05A.h5 GPMCOR_KAR_1803022221_2353_022780_1BS_DAB_05A.h5 GPMCOR_KUR_1803030736_0908_022786_1BS...

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