Algorithm Information

The algorithm for the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) has now been upgraded to Version 06. The transition to V05 for the IMERG Final Run began 13 March 2019 at PPS and the new data started flowing down to the GES DISC as well. However, on 15 March 2019 an error was discovered in processing the initial batches of V06 IMERG Final Run months. A design choice in the code ended up retaining microwave precipitation estimates in the latitude band 60°N-S when there is snow/ice on the surface, rather than masking out the estimates due to low performance in such cases.

Users have requested a “simple” quality index (QI) to give some guidance on when they should most trust the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). While the goal is reasonable, there is no agreement about how this quantity should be defined. After some discussion within the team, two distinctly different quality indices were chosen for the half-hourly and monthly data fields (QIh and QIm, respectively) for implementation in Version 05 and continued in V06.

NASA produces a GIS translation of IMERG for various accumulation periods. The GIS translation maintains the 0.1-degree spatial resolution of the original HDF5 data product. In July 2023, Version 7 IMERG was released in both HDF5 and GIS formats. In April 2019, Version 6 of IMERG had been released, covering June 2000 to 2019. The long- duration archive for all versions starting with Version 6 is a boon to scientific research and provides a training set for near real-time applications such as disaster monitoring.

1AGMI contains unpacked packet data from GMI science data from the GMI passive
microwave instrument flown on the GPM satellite. Swath S1 has 9 channels which are
similar to TRMM TMI (10V 10H 19V 19H 23V 37V 37H 89V 89H). Swath S2 has 4
channels similar to AMSU-B (166V 166H 183+/-3V 183+/-8V). Data for both swaths
is observed in the same revolution of the instrument. Swath S3 has ScienceDataHeader.
Swath S4 has full rotation for low freq channels (S1). Swath S5 has full rotation for high
freq channels (S2).

This document describes the basic idea of DPR data processing. It was originally written for the algorithm used in the at-launch version (V03). The algorithm has been modified and improved since then. Although the basic idea of data processing remains the same, the actual flow of processing, in particular that in the solver module, has changed substantially. As a result, some part of description in Section 3.1 may not be relevant any more.

The Integrated Multi-satelliE Retrievals for GPM (*IMERG*) is the unified U.S. algorithm that provides the multi-satellite precipitation product for the U.S. GPM team.  The precipitation estimates from the various precipitation-relevant satellite passive microwave (PMW) sensors comprising the GPM constellation are computed using the 2017 version of the Goddard Profiling Algorithm (GPROF2017), then gridded, intercalibrated to the GPM Combined Radar Radiometer Analysis product (with GPCP climatological calibration), and combined into half-hourly 0.1°x0.1° fields.

This document describes the algorithm and processing sequence for the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG).  This algorithm is intended to intercalibrate, merge, and interpolate “all” satellite microwave precipitation estimates, together with microwave-calibrated infrared (IR) satellite estimates, precipitation gauge analyses, and potentially other precipitation estimators at fine time and space scales for the TRMM and GPM eras over the entire globe.

In IMERG up through V05, the cloud motion vector computation approach used is that pioneered in CMORPH (Joyce et al. 2011), in which motion vectors are computed from 4-km geosynchronous infrared (GEO-IR) brightness temperatures. Hence, the motion vectors reflect cloud top motions. However, there are two main limitations in using GEO-IR. The first limitation is that cloud top motions may not match precipitation motions due to both wind shear and the growth and decay of precipitation systems.

Owing to the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite’s unique asynchronous orbit, its orbital ground tracks intersect the orbital tracks of many other sun-synchronous satellites. Of particular interest are the intersections (coincidences) between the GPM core satellite and the 94-GHz (W-band) CloudSat profiling radar (CPR), within small enough time differences, such that the combination of the resulting “pseudo three-frequency” radar profiles (W-band from CPR, and Ku/Ka-band from GPM), and the 13-channel (10-183 GHz) GMI radiometer are useful for many scientific purposes.

This document describes the algorithms for the Geolocation Toolkit (GeoTK) for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission. The core part of the algorithm uses input orbit ephemeris, spacecraft attitude, and instrument pointing data to compute each pixel latitude and longitude viewed, along with ancillary data such as zenith/incidence and Sun angle data. These calculations are implemented in the GeoTK software subroutines, which will be used for Level 1B (L1B) algorithms for GPM.