Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/tmiwop
tmiwop·v3·dataset

Ocean wind, water vapor and rain from microwaves (TRMM TMI)

TRMM MICROWAVE IMAGER (TMI) WENTZ OCEAN PRODUCTS V3
ocean NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 2 HDF-EOS4
In plain English

What it measures. Several ocean weather measurements over the sea, including rain rate, wind speed near the surface, water vapor in the air and sea surface temperature.

How it's made. Derived from the TRMM Microwave Imager, a passive microwave sensor that detects natural microwave energy from the sea and atmosphere across five frequency channels.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists track ocean conditions and weather over the tropics, supporting studies of rainfall, winds and sea temperature.

What's measured

Oceans › Ocean Winds › Surface WindsOceans › Ocean Temperature › Sea Surface TemperatureAtmosphere › Precipitation › Precipitation RateAtmosphere › Atmospheric Winds › Surface WindsAtmosphere › Atmospheric Water Vapor › Water Vapor Indicators › Water VaporAtmosphere › Clouds › Cloud Microphysics › Cloud Liquid Water/Ice

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-09-17 → 2015-04-03
  • Measured byTRMM (TMI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -38, 180, 38
  • FormatsHDF-EOS4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

The TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) Wentz Ocean Products dataset used the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), which is a 5-channel, dual-polarized, passive microwave radiometer. The TMI is used to measure several important meteorological parameters over sea surfaces, such as precipitation rate, wind speed, wapter vapor, and sea surface temperature. The TMI, a successor to the SSM/I, measures radiation at frequencies of 10.7, 19.4, 21.3, 37, 85.5 GHz. It orbits at an altitude of 218 miles, much lower than the SSM/I, thus providing better resolution.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="tmiwop",
    version="3",
    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 GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.