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GPCP Version 2 Combined Precipitation Data Set.

One-Line Description:

  • GPCP Version 2 Combined Precipitation Data Set: Monthly Means from combined satellite/station data

Temporal Coverage:

  • Monthly values 1979/01 through Apr 2008
  • Long term monthly means, derived from years 1979 - 2000

Spatial Coverage:

  • 2.5 degree latitude x 2.5 degree longitude global grid (144x72)
  • 88.75N - 88.75S, 1.25E - 358.75E

Levels:

  • N/A

Update Schedule:

  • Irregular

Download/Plot Data:

Variable Statistic Level Download File Create Plot/Subset
Precipitation Monthly Mean ' ' precip.mon.mean.nc plot
Precipitation Monthly Mean (Provisional data) ' ' precip.mon.mean.prov.nc plot
Precipitation Monthly Error Estimate ' ' precip.mon.mean.error.nc plot
Precipitation Monthly LTM (1979-2000) ' ' precip.mon.ltm.nc plot

Usage Restrictions:

  • None

Detailed Description:

  • This data set consists of monthly means of precipitation derived from satellite and gauge measurements. From the documentation
    "The work is being carried out as part of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (*GPCP*), an international project of the WMO/WCRP/GEWEX designed to provide improved long-record estimates of precipitation over the globe. The GPCP home page is located at http://precip.gsfc.nasa.gov/

    The Version 2 Data Set contains data from several *contributing centers*:

    1. GPCP Polar Satellite Precipitation Data Centre - Emission (SSM/I emission estimates),
    2. GPCP Polar Satellite Precipitation Data Centre - Scattering (SSM/I scattering estimates),
    3. GPCP Geostationary Satellite Precipitation Data Centre (GPI and OPI estimates and rain gauge analyses),
    4. NASA/GSFC Satellite Applications Office (TOVS estimates), and
    5. GPCP Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (rain gauge analyses),
    The final satellite-gauge combination, the single-source input data and the intermediate satellite-only combination products are currently being distributed. Some single-source data sets extend beyond the periods for which they're used in Version 2 in their original archival locations. The latter two are only posted for months in which they contribute to the final product."

    Please read the complete documentation for a more complete description of all aspects of how the dataset was put together including quality control, estimation methods.

    Additional information is available from NASA at http://precip.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and more specifically at their ftp site.

    Please note: If you acquire GPCP data products from PSD, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as GPCP data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSD to justify keeping the GPCP data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

    To acknowledge the data source, the authors suggest that one possible wording is: "The GPCP combined precipitation data were developed and computed by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres as a contribution to the GEWEX Global Precipitation Climatology Project."

Caveats:

  • None

Related File Naming & Structure Information:

File Names:

  • precip.mon.statistic.nc   (In directory: /Datasets/gpcp/)

OpenDap File Names:

  • http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcp/precip.mon.statistic.nc   

Dataset Format and Size:

  • PSD standard NetCDF 13 Mbyte file for each monthly file.
  • PSD standard NetCDF .5 Mbyte file for the long term mean file.

Missing Data:

  • Missing data is flagged with a value of -9.96921e+36f.

Citation:

  • Please note: If you acquire GPCP Precipitation data products from PSD, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as GPCP Precipitation data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSD to justify keeping the GPCP Precipitation data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!
  • For dataset: Adler, R.F., G.J. Huffman, A. Chang, R. Ferraro, P. Xie, J. Janowiak, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, S. Curtis, D. Bolvin, A. Gruber, J. Susskind, and P. Arkin, 2003: The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present). J. Hydrometeor., 4,1147-1167.

References:

  • Adler, R.F., G.J. Huffman, A. Chang, R. Ferraro, P. Xie, J. Janowiak, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, S. Curtis, D. Bolvin, A. Gruber, J. Susskind, and P. Arkin, 2003: The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present). J. Hydrometeor., 4,1147-1167.
  • Adler, R.F., G.J. Huffman, and P.R. Keehn 1994: Global rain estimates from microwave-adjusted geosynchronous IR data. Remote Sens. Rev., 11, 125-15.
  • Arkin, P.A., and B. N. Meisner, 1987: The relationship between large-scale convective rainfall and cold cloud over the Western Hemisphere during 1982-1984. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 51-74.
  • Grody, N.C., 1991: Classification of snow cover and precipitation using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I). J. Geophys. Res., 96, 7423-7435.
  • Hollinger, J.P., J.L. Pierce, and G.A. Poe, 1990: SSM/I instrument evaluation. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 28, 781-790.
  • Huffman, G.J., 1997a: Estimates of root-mean-square random error contained in finite sets of estimated precipitation. J. Appl. Meteor., 36, 1191-1201.
  • __________, ed., 1997b: The Global Precipitation Climatology Project monthly mean precipitation data set. WMO/TD No. 808, WMO, Geneva, Switzerland. 37pp.
  • __________, R.F. Adler, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, and P.R. Keehn, 1995: Global precipitation estimates based on a technique for combining satellite-based estimates, rain gauge analysis, and NWP model precipitation information. J. Climate, 8, 1284-1295.
  • __________, __________, P.A. Arkin, A. Chang, R. Ferraro, A. Gruber, J. Janowiak, R.J. Joyce, A. McNab, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, and P. Xie, 1997: The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Combined Precipitation Data Set. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 5-20.
  • Janowiak, J.E., and P.A. Arkin, 1991: Rainfall variations in the tropics during 1986-1989. J. Geophys. Res., 96, 3359-3373.
  • Joyce, R.J., J.E. Janowiak, and G.J. Huffman, 2000: Latitudinal and Seasonal Dependent Zenith Angle Corrections for Geostationary Satellite IR Brightness Temperatures. J. Appl. Meteor., submitted.
  • Krajewski, W.F., G.J. Ciach, J.R. McCollum, and C. Bacotiu, 1999: Initial validation of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project over the United States. J. Appl. Meteor., 38, in press.
  • Legates, D.R, 1987: A climatology of global precipitation. Pub. in Climatol., 40, U. of Delaware.
  • McNab, A., 1995: Surface Reference Data Center Product Guide. National Climatic Data Center, Asheville,NC, 10 pp.
  • Morrissey, M.L., and J. S. Green, 1991: The Pacific Atoll Raingauge Data Set. Planetary Geosci. Div. Contrib. 648, Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 45 pp.
  • Rudolf, B., 1993: Management and analysis of precipitation on a routine basis. Proc. Internat. WMO/IAHS/ETH SYMP. on Precip. and Evap., Slovak Hydromet. Inst., Bratislava, Sept. 1993, 1, 69-76.
  • Susskind, J., and J. Pfaendtner, 1989: Impact of interactive physical retrievals on NWP. Report on the Joint ECMWF/EUMETSAT Workshop on the Use of Satellite Data iomn Operational Weather Prediction: 1989-1993, Vol. 1, T. Hollingsworth, Ed., ECMWF, Shinfield Park, Reading RG2 9AV, U.K., 245-270.
  • Susskind, J., P. Piraino, L. Rokke, L. Iredell, and A. Mehta, 1997: Characteristics of the TOVS Pathfinder Path A Dataset. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 1449-1472.
  • Weng, F., and N.C. Grody, 1994: Retrieval of cloud liquid water using the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). J. Geophys. Res., 99, 25535-25551.
  • Wilheit, T., A. Chang and L. Chiu, 1991: Retrieval of monthly rainfall indices from microwave radiometric measurements using probability distribution function. J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 8, 118-136.
  • Willmott, C.J., C.M. Rowe, and W.D. Philpot, 1985: Small-scale climate maps: A sensitivity analysis of some common assumptions associated with grid-point interpolation and contouring. Amer. Cartographer, 12, 5-16.
  • WCRP, 1986: Report of the workshop on global large scale precipitation data sets for the World Climate Research Programme. WCP-111, WMO/TD - No. 94, WMO, Geneva, 45 pp.
  • Xie, P. and P. A. Arkin, 1997: Global precipitation: A 17-year monthly analysis based on gauge observations, satellite estimates, and numerical model outputs. BAMS, vol.78, 2539-2558.
  • __________ and __________, 1996: Analysis of global monthly precipitation using gauge observations, satellite estimates, and numerical model predictions. J. Climate, 9, 840-858.

Original Source:

Contact:

  • Physical Sciences Division: Data Management
    NOAA/ESRL/PSD
    325 Broadway
    Boulder, CO 80305-3328
    esrl.psd.data@noaa.gov