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. 

As previously announced, with the recent release of the long-record V06B IMERG Early, Late, and Final products in late summer of 2019, processing of the TMPA-RT and TMPA products is ending, with December 2019 being the final month of data. This means that TMPA-RT products have already ceased production and the TMPA products will end with December 2019 (expected by March 2020). Thanks go to the PPS team, who managed to keep some really old computer hardware alive long enough to meet this goal! These legacy products will continue to be hosted at PPS and GES DISC to allow users sufficient time to...
Difficulties with accessing NOAA CPC 4-km Merged Global IR data resulted in the loss of IR data in IMERG Early Run for 12 November 12:00-21:30 UTC and 14 November 10:00-15 November 10:30 UTC, and in IMERG Late Run for 12 November 12:00-20:30 UTC and 14 November 10:00-15 November 09:30 UTC. Subsequently, the IR data were retrieved for use in the Final Run.
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#32319 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_KUR_1911060353_0525_032319_1BS_DUB_05C.h5 GPMCOR_KAR_1911060353_0525_032319_1BS_DAB_05C.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...
The Precipitation Processing System (PPS) has begun the TRMM and GPM Goddard Convective-Stratiform Heating (CSH) V06A level 2 and level 3 data reprocessing on, Monday October 21, 2019. This reprocessing will cover the whole life for TRMM and the period from the launch to current for GPM. The release notes (CHS V06) explaining the key changes from V05A and improvements implemented in the current V06A product will be available later this week and will be posted on the following PPS public web pages as soon as it's provided: https://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/GPMprelimdocs.html https://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov...
PPS will resume to process NOAA-19 MHS L1C and GPROF products for the granules starting from 09/20/2019 10:22:10 UTC. There was an issue with the satellite drifting which caused issues with the pre-processing. NOAA/NESDIS updated the processing coefficient and made the NOAA-19 MHS channel 2 L1B data back to normal.
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