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Full catalog/AIRG2SSD_IRonly
AIRG2SSD_IRonly·v006·dataset

Estimated rainfall from infrared (Aqua)

AIRS/Aqua L2G Precipitation Estimate (AIRS-only) V006 (AIRG2SSD_IRonly) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2G active
In plain English

What it measures. An estimate of how much rain fell, derived purely from infrared observations, combined into a daily global grid at about 25 km cells (many cells are left empty where no estimate was made).

How it's made. Produced from the AIRS infrared sounder on the Aqua satellite, with swath measurements assembled into a daily grid sized to match other rainfall products.

How & where you'd use it. A contributing input intended to be merged into a larger combined global precipitation dataset rather than used on its own.

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="006",
    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.