GPM GMI XCAL: Common Calibrated Brightness Temperatures for Precipitation

Version 07 inter-calibrated brightness temperature data from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) satellite radiometer. The dataset contains multi-swath antenna temperature measurements across 13 channels, including 10V, 19H, and 183+/-3V, to serve as a radiometric transfer standard for constellation satellites. It is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Inter-calibrating passive microwave sensors from other satellites based on the GMI radiometric transfer standard.
• Analyzing atmospheric water vapor and precipitation patterns based on multi-frequency brightness temperature channels.
• Developing consistent rainfall retrieval algorithms based on calibrated brightness temperature (Tb) measurements.
• Studying full-orbit radiometric data for non-sun-synchronous satellite observations.

Strengths

• Data is inter-calibrated (XCAL) to serve as a consistent radiometric standard for other satellite sensors.
• Contains brightness temperature measurements across 13 distinct channels organized into multiple swaths.
• Version 07 is the current, superseding version of the dataset.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) radiometer, processed through the XCAL inter-satellite calibration process.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not specified in the provided metadata.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:27:09.578243; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from a non-sun-synchronous satellite orbit.