Daily rainfall profiles from radar (GPM, descending passes)
What it measures. Daily, gridded summaries of rainfall profiles, including how often it rained, average rain rates, and variability, separated by surface and precipitation type. This file covers the satellite's descending (one-direction) passes.
How it's made. Built by accumulating the GPM Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar's instant measurements into daily grids at quarter-degree and coarser resolution.
How & where you'd use it. Gives a convenient summarized view of rainfall over time that's easy to compare with other satellite and ground-based rainfall data.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2014-03-09 → ongoing
- Measured byGPM (DPR)
- Processing levelLevel 3
- Spatial extent-180, -67, 180, 67
- 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 Older versions will no longer be available and have been superseded by Version 07.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 Level 3 DPR algorithm accumulates instantaneous precipitation estimates from the Level 2 retrieval algorithms into grids over a day and month time span. There are two grid resolutions: 5.0 degrees and 25 kms. For each grid box, the core statistics are the number of measurements, mean, and standard deviation. Most variables are also conditioned on surface type and precipitation type with other three-dimensional fields adding the height above the ellipsoid. Unless otherwise specified, the means are conditioned on precipitation being present (rain rate > 0). For the daily product, the mean square statistic is saved rather than the standard deviation. In addition to the daily and monthly products is a simplified joint daily product that contains a subset of the fields from the full daily product. The Level 3 DPR products present the user with summary information over daily and monthly time periods. These gridded products are in a convenient gridded form and can be used easily in comparisons with other satellite and ground data.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="GPM_3DPR_DES",
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
- Use the Earthdata Search to find and retrieve data sets across multiple data centers. GET DATA
- Access the data via the OPeNDAP protocol. USE SERVICE API
- ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- README Document VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- FILE SPECIFICATION DOCUMENT VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Instrument Description VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GPM and partner sensors anomalous events VIEW RELATED INFORMATION