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Full catalog/GPM_1CGPMGMI
GPM_1CGPMGMI·v07·dataset

Raw microwave brightness for weather and rain (GPM)

GPM GMI Common Calibrated Brightness Temperatures Collocated L1C 1.5 hours 13 km V07 (GPM_1CGPMGMI) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 1 active
In plain English

What it measures. Raw, calibrated microwave readings of how bright Earth looks to the sensor across many channels. These brightness values respond to rain, water vapor, and surface conditions, but aren't yet rainfall amounts.

How it's made. Recorded by the GMI microwave instrument on the GPM satellite and recalibrated to a common standard so different products stay consistent (an early Level 1C stage).

How & where you'd use it. A foundational input most people use indirectly: scientists turn these brightness readings into rainfall and storm products rather than using the raw measurements themselves.

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
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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 07 is the current version of the data set. Older versions will no longer be available and have been superseded by Version 07. 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.

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="07",
    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.