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Full catalog/AIRG2SSD_IRonly
AIRG2SSD_IRonly·v7.0·dataset

How much it rained (infrared estimate)

AIRS/Aqua L2G Precipitation Estimate (AIRS-only) V7.0 at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2G active
In plain English

What it measures. Estimates how much rain fell, based on infrared readings, organized into a daily global grid with an hour-by-hour layer and grid cells of about 25 kilometers.

How it's made. Derived from the AIRS infrared instrument on the Aqua satellite using a rainfall-estimation method, then combined from short orbit slices into one daily global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Built to feed into larger global precipitation datasets, helping researchers and forecasters track rainfall patterns where other measurements are sparse.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FRACTIONATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD FREQUENCYATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD TOP PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › LIQUID PRECIPITATION › RAINATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › PRECIPITATION AMOUNT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-08-30 → ongoing
  • Measured byAqua (AIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2G
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is a grating spectrometer (R = 1200) aboard the second Earth Observing System (EOS) polar-orbiting platform, EOS Aqua. This precipitation estimate from AIRS IR only is using a TOVS-like algorithm, and is intended for merging into the precipitation product of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP). The precipitation estimate from AIRS Level 2 Support product, which are 6-min swath granules (240 per day) are combined here into one daily "Level 2G" global grid with dimensions (24x1440x720). Thus every hour is a "layer", and the resulting grid cell size is 0.25 degree (~25 km). Thus the grid size is made to fit TRMM products. Since AIRS precipitation is retrieved at AMSU footprint resolution, which is about 45 km at nadir, many grid cells in this 0.25-deg grid are "empty". The data are stored such that the first line is the South Pole. The geolocation information for every hour-layer is also provided in the file.

Get the data

airg2ssd_ironly_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="AIRG2SSD_IRonly",
    version="7.0",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.