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Full catalog/TROPICS01KTPIL2B
TROPICS01KTPIL2B·v1.0·dataset

How much ice rain holds in storm clouds (TROPICS)

TROPICS01 Pathfinder L2B Precipitation Ice Water Path (PIWP) V1.0
atmosphere NASA GES_DISC Level 2
In plain English

What it measures. An estimate of the total mass of falling ice (such as snow or hail) within a vertical column of a storm, measured as kilograms per square meter.

How it's made. Derived from microwave measurements made by the TMS sounder aboard a TROPICS small satellite, which is sensitive to ice particles in storm clouds.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists study the inner structure and intensity of tropical cyclones, supporting research into how these storms form and strengthen.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › PRECIPITATION › PRECIPITATION PROFILES › ICE WATER PATH

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-11-01 → 2023-12-15
  • Measured byTROPICS/01 (TMS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • 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 "Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats" (TROPICS) mission has a goal of providing nearly all-weather observations of three-dimensional temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones. The mission comprises a constellation of five identical Space Vehicles (SVs) conforming to the 3U form factor and hosting a passive microwave spectrometer payload. Each SV hosts an identical high-performance spectrometer named the TROPICS Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) that will provide temperature profiles using seven channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line, water vapor profiles using three channels near the 183-GHz water vapor absorption line, imagery in a single channel near 90 GHz for precipitation measurements (when combined with higher resolution water vapor channels), and a single channel near 205 GHz that is more sensitive to cloud-sized ice particles. This dataset is the Level-2b Precipitation Ice Water Path (PIWP). PIWP is the total mass of ice-phase precipitation (like snow or hail) within a vertical atmospheric column, per unit area (measured in kilograms per square meter or kg/m2). PIWP is specifically about the portion that is falling as precipitation while Cloud Ice Water Path (CIWP) measures all ice particles in a cloud. TROPICS channels are not sensitive to small particles required for CIWP estimation. Presently, the algorithm retrieves PIWP over oceans only. Retrievals over land could be investigated in the future as resources and schedule permit. The inputs to the PIWP are the L1b brightness temperatures. Details for the L1b can be found in the L1 native radiance ATBD (TRPCS-ATBD-034). Each TROPICS netCDF file contains a granule of data with 81 spots and approximately 2880 scans, where a granule is defined as an orbit's worth of data.

Get the data

tropics01ktpil2b_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TROPICS01KTPIL2B",
    version="1.0",
    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.