How much it rained or snowed (GPM combined)
What it measures. How much rain and snow is falling and the structure of precipitation within storms, measured along the satellite's path at about 5 km detail.
How it's made. Created by combining two instruments on the GPM satellite, a precipitation radar and a microwave imager, to find the rainfall pattern that best fits both sets of measurements within each orbit.
How & where you'd use it. A high-quality reference for precipitation that supports weather and climate research, flood studies, and the calibration of other rainfall products.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2014-03-08 → ongoing
- Measured byGPM (DPR, GMI)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- 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 Older versions will no longer be available and have been superseded by Version 07. The same algorithm has been applied to TRMM observations (December 1997 - April 2015) and these data can be found under product name GPM_2BCMB_TRMM. This is a precipitation product created from the combination of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments. The 2BCMB product uses data from the Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar and GMI, determining the precipitation structure that best fits the combined data from these instruments. It is the Level 2 DPR and GMI Combined precipitation product that contains the data acquired by the GPM instruments in one orbit, or granule. It is written as a two-swath structure. The first swath, NS (normal scan), contains 49 rays per scan that match the KuPR rays. It is calculated from the KuPR and GMI data. The second swath, MS (matched scan), contains 25 rays per scan that match the 25 KaPR rays. It is calculated from the KuPR, KaPR, and GMI data.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="GPM_2BCMB",
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. Official links
- Access the data via HTTPS GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- README Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- FILE SPECIFICATION DOCUMENT VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Release Notes VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Instrument Description VIEW RELATED INFORMATION