GPM AMSR-2 on GCOM-W1 (GPROF) Climate-based Radiometer Precipitation Profiling L3 1 month

GPM_3GPROFGCOMW1AMSR2_CLIM is a NASA-produced Level 3 dataset providing global gridded monthly precipitation averages. Version 07 data uses climate-homogeneous ECMWF-Interim reanalysis as ancillary input for the GPROF retrieval algorithm, making it suitable for climate time series analysis. The data is derived from microwave sensors on the GCOM-W1 satellite's AMSR-2 instrument, which are sensitive to liquid and ice-phase precipitation.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term global precipitation patterns based on climate-referenced satellite retrievals.
• Studying atmospheric water vapor and hydrometeor distribution based on microwave sensor sensitivity.
• Validating and calibrating climate models using homogeneous, gridded monthly precipitation averages.
• Investigating regional climate variability based on 0.25-degree spatial resolution global data.

Strengths

• Data is specifically processed for climate studies using homogeneous ancillary data (ECMWF-Interim reanalysis).
• Retrievals are based on high-quality microwave sensors sensitive to both liquid and ice-phase precipitation.
• Dataset is maintained by NASA and updated to a current version (V07), superseding older versions.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The ancillary data used (ECMWF-Interim) has a 2-3 month lag behind regular production, which may affect near-real-time applications.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite-based retrievals from the AMSR-2 instrument on the GCOM-W1 satellite, processed with the GPROF algorithm.

Time Range

Monthly averages; specific temporal coverage is not stated in the provided input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:30:19.858269; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage at 0.25 degree x 0.25 degree spatial resolution.