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Full catalog/GPM_1CGPMGMI
GPM_1CGPMGMI·v08·dataset

Raw microwave brightness readings (GPM GMI)

GPM GMI Common Calibrated Brightness Temperatures Collocated L1C 1.5 hours 13 km V08 (GPM_1CGPMGMI) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1 active
In plain English

What it measures. Raw, carefully calibrated microwave brightness readings, that is, how much microwave energy the instrument detected across its channels, which relate to clouds and precipitation.

How it's made. Collected by the GMI microwave radiometer on the GPM satellite, then recalibrated to a common standard so different instruments line up consistently.

How & where you'd use it. A low-level building-block product: most people use it indirectly through higher-level rainfall and snowfall products rather than reading the brightness values directly.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPORATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › MICROWAVE › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2014-03-04 → ongoing
  • Measured byGPM (GMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 1
  • Spatial extent-180, -70, 180, 70
  • 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

Version 08 is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and have been superseded by Version 08. All 1C products have a common L1C data structure, simple and generic. Each L1C swath includes scan time, latitude and longitude, scan status, quality, incidence angle, Sun glint angle, and the intercalibrated brightness temperature (Tc). One or more swaths are included in a product. The radiometer data are recalibrated to a common basis so that precipitation products derived from them are consistent. 1CGMI contains common calibrated brightness temperatures from the GMI passive microwave instrument flown on the GPM satellite. 1C-R GMI is a remapped version of 1CGMI which is explained at the end of this section. 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. GMI geometric footprints are: 12x13.4 km (10.65 GHz), 6.0x13.4 km (18.7 GHz), 6.0x13.4 km (23.8 GHz), 6.0x13.4 km (36.5 GHz), 3.0x13.4 km (89 GHz), 3.0x13.4 km (166.5 GHz), 3.0x13.4 km (183.31GHz). GPM Project cross-calibrates all channels at spatial sampling: 6x13 km (cross-track x along-track at forward bore sight).

Get the data

gpm_1cgpmgmi_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GPM_1CGPMGMI",
    version="08",
    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.