GCPEx: Ground Precipitation Measurements for Snowfall Algorithm Validation

Five ground stations in Ontario collected one-minute and cumulative records of liquid, solid, and mixed precipitation during the winter of 2011-2012. This GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment dataset was designed to address specific shortcomings in satellite-based snowfall retrieval algorithms. It provides coordinated ground truth of precipitation microphysics, remote sensing observations, and model simulations.

Use Cases

• Validating Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite snowfall retrieval algorithms based on coordinated ground-truth measurements.
• Analyzing the microphysical properties of winter precipitation using high-temporal-resolution (one-minute) gauge data.
• Comparing precipitation accumulation and intensity across five distinct geographic sites in Ontario, Canada.
• Supporting coordinated model simulations of precipitating snow with in-situ observational data.

Strengths

• Provides high-temporal-resolution data with one-minute measurements of precipitation.
• Covers a coordinated multi-site experiment across five distinct locations (CARE, Huronia, Steamshow, Skydide, Morton).
• Explicitly designed to address known algorithm shortcomings for a major satellite mission (GPM).

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between platforms (2012-02-29 vs. 2026-04-10), suggesting potential metadata errors.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is limited to a single winter season (December 2011 to February 2012).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected via Pluvio precipitation gauges during the GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) field campaign.

Time Range

December 2011 to February 2012

Freshness

2026-04-10 02:56:00.519399 (from datagov, though this date appears anomalous)

Geography

Ontario, Canada, at five sites: CARE, Huronia, Steamshow, Skydive, and Morton.