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Full catalog/TRMM_2A25
TRMM_2A25·v7·dataset

Rain rate and storm structure by radar (TRMM)

TRMM Precipitation Radar Rainfall Rate and Profile L2 1.5 hours V7 (TRMM_2A25) at GES DISC
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. Rainfall measured by radar from space, including how hard it is raining and the three-dimensional structure of storms from top to bottom, beam by beam.

How it's made. Comes from the Precipitation Radar on the TRMM satellite, which sent radar pulses down through storms and turned the echoes into rain-rate profiles at a few kilometers' resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Studying tropical and subtropical storms in detail and how rain is distributed within them. Note: newer data in a GPM-compatible format have superseded this version.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › DROPLET SIZEATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › PRECIPITATION RATESPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR REFLECTIVITY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1997-12-31 → 2015-04-01
  • Measured byTRMM (PR)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -38, 180, 38
  • 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

The new version of these data is in GPM-like format (consistent with the GPM Dual-frequency Radar data format), and can be found under the name GPM_2APR. The TRMM 2A25 data are estimates of the three-dimensional distribution of rain from the TRMM Precipitation Radar. The average rainfall rate between two pre-defined altitudes is calculated for each beam position. Other output data include parameters of Z-R relationships, integrated rain rate of each beam, range bin numbers of rain layer boundaries, and many intermediate parameters. Iguchi and Meneghini (1994) describe this algorithm. Pre-Boost (before 7 August 2001): Temporal Resolution: 91.5 min/orbit ~ 16 orbits/day; Swath Width: 215 km; Horizontal Resolution: 4.3 km Post-Boost (after 24 August 2001): Temporal Resolution: 92.5 min/orbit ~ 16 orbits/day; Swath Width: 247 km; Horizontal Resolution: 5.0 km

Get the data

trmm_2a25_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TRMM_2A25",
    version="7",
    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.