GPM MC3E V2: Paired Rain Gauge Measurements for Ground Validation

Mid-latitude continental data from the 2011 MC3E campaign provides high-resolution precipitation measurements. The dataset contains paired tipping-bucket rain gauge records from Met One and Campbell Scientific instruments, offering both raw rainfall accumulation and cubic-spline interpolated rain rates at one-minute resolution. These measurements support the validation of satellite-based precipitation estimates from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived precipitation estimates from the GPM mission based on high-resolution ground truth data.
• Comparing the performance of different tipping-bucket rain gauge models (Met One vs. Campbell Scientific) using paired station measurements.
• Analyzing convective storm characteristics and rainfall intensity using one-minute resolution rain rate time series.
• Applying cubic-spline interpolation methods to raw tipping-bucket data to derive continuous rain rates for hydrological modeling.

Strengths

• Provides high temporal resolution data with measurements recorded every minute.
• Contains paired instrument data from two different manufacturers (Met One and Campbell Scientific), enabling direct comparison.
• Includes both raw accumulation (mm) and processed rain rate (mm/hr) data products, with interpolation method (Wang, 2008) documented.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting freshness information: one platform lists a last update in 2026, while another lists 2011, suggesting potential metadata errors.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the specific stations deployed for the two-month MC3E experiment in 2011.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Data collected by tipping-bucket rain gauges as part of the GPM Ground Validation Mid-latitude Continental Convective Cloud Experiment (MC3E).

Time Range

April 2011 through June 2011

Freshness

2026-04-10 02:55:03.125175 (from datagov, though this conflicts with the 2011 date from nasa_earthdata)

Geography

Mid-latitude continental region (specific to the MC3E experiment)