GPM Radiometer Climate Precipitation Profiles from NOAA-17 Satellite

Version 07 climate-referenced precipitation data from the AMSU-B sensor on the NOAA-17 satellite, processed by NASA's GPROF algorithm. The dataset uses ECMWF-Interim reanalysis for homogeneous ancillary data to support long-term climate studies. It provides mean rain rates and vertical cloud structure profiles based on Bayesian retrieval from observed brightness temperatures.

Use Cases

• Climate trend analysis based on homogeneous, climate-referenced precipitation retrievals.
• Precipitation profiling and vertical hydrometeor structure analysis based on Bayesian algorithm outputs.
• Inter-sensor calibration and consistency studies across the GPM constellation of passive microwave sensors.
• Validation of atmospheric models using surface and atmospheric condition data derived from ECMWF reanalysis.

Strengths

• Uses a consistent climate-reference methodology with ECMWF-Interim reanalysis for homogeneous long-term records.
• Applies a parametric Bayesian algorithm suitable for a multi-sensor satellite constellation approach.
• Provides uncertainty estimates alongside mean rain rate and vertical structure retrievals.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and spatial/temporal granularity details are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing data from the AMSU-B sensor on NOAA-17, processed by the Goddard Profiling (GPROF) algorithm.

Time Range

Likely spans the operational period of the NOAA-17 satellite with a 3-month data latency for climate products.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:08:42.772825; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage, typical of low-Earth orbit satellite observations.