TRMM Level-3 Monthly 0.5° x 0.5° Spaceborne Radar Rainfall (3A25)

DAAC-TRMM-3A25 V7

This dataset is created from the TRMM products 3A25 in the GSFC Earth Sciences (GES) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), NASA.
The primary objective of algorithm 3A25 is to compute various rainfall statistics over a month from the level 2 PR products. The statistics are derived at two spatial resolutions: (1) a standard space scale of 0.5 degrees by 0.5 degrees (latitude x longitude) cells and (2) a high resolution subset of 0.5 degree x 0.5 degree cells. The output variables include rainfall rate (mm h-1) profile at 2, 4, 6, 10, and 15 km, fractional rain, snow ice layer, and surface rain rate (mm h-1). The output statistics include probabilities of occurrence, means and standard deviations, histograms, and correlation coefficients.

All statistics in 3A25, except near-surface rain rate, are computed only when rain is judged in 1C21 to be "certain." When rain is judged in 1C21 to be "possible", the observation is treated as a "no-rain" observation. For the near-surface rain rate, the statistics (mean, standard deviation, and histogram) are computed for "rain-possible" as for the usual "rain-certain." Because the "rain-possible" cases are dominated by noise so that the probability of false-alarm is high, the "rain-certain" statistics should be considered as more representative of the TRMM radar data.
Three types of rain rates are defined in 3A25: (1) a "near-surface" rain rate that is obtained from the range bin closest to the surface which is not corrupted by the surface clutter; (2) a path-averaged rain rate calculated by summing the values from the storm top (first gate where rain is detected) to the last gate (gate nearest to the surface uncontaminated by surface clutter) and dividing by the number of gates in the interval; and (3) those at fixed heights above the ellipsoid (2, 4, 6, 10, and 15 km).

IMPORTANT: After over 17 years of productive data gathering, the instruments on TRMM were turned off on April 8, 2015.

Read the TRMM end of mission frequently asked questions

Variables
mean of non-zero rain rate [mm/hr]
standard deviation of non-zero rain rate [mm/hr]
mean of non-zero convective rain rate [mm/hr]
standard deviation of non-zero convective rain rate [mm/hr]
mean of non-zero stratiform rain rate [mm/hr]
standard deviation of non-zero stratiform rain rate [mm/hr]
mean of non-zero near-surface rain rate [mm/hr]
standard deviation of non-zero near-surface rain rate [mm/hr]
mean of non-zero estimated surface rain rate below clutter [mm/hr]
standard deviation of non-zero estimated surface rain rate below clutter [mm/hr]
ZonalGlobal by 0.5 deg
Meridional36.75S to 36.75N by 0.5 deg
Verticalsurface and 4 Levels: path average, 2.0Km, 4.0Km and 6.0Km  
Temporal Dec 1997 to Mar 2015 by 1 month (Orbit descent: Nov 2014-Jan15 missing)
Static? yes
Volume405.8MB
Serverpublic:
Sourcehttp://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/precipitation/TRMM_README/TRMM_3A25_readme.shtml 
Acquired Jul 17, 2003 (Updated Sept 2015)
APDRC contact /
Supplements Readme_trmm_3A25_monthly