GPM Ground Validation Raindrop Measurements from Wallops Flight Facility

Raindrop measurements collected by a Two-Dimensional Video Disdrometer at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This dataset provides detailed properties including size, fall speed, shape, and derived precipitation metrics for ground validation of the Global Precipitation Measurement mission. Data are available in ASCII format from July 24, 2013, to October 5, 2015, and are managed by the GHRC DAAC.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite precipitation retrievals by comparing ground-measured rain rates and reflectivity.
• Analyzing raindrop size distribution and fall velocity to improve microphysical models.
• Studying raindrop shape characteristics like oblateness and cross-sectional area for scattering calculations.
• Calculating integral precipitation parameters such as liquid water content and total drop concentration.
• Characterizing specific rain event properties for climatological or storm-specific analysis.

Strengths

• Provides a multi-year time series of detailed in-situ measurements from July 2013 to October 2015.
• Contains multiple physical raindrop properties (size, speed, shape) and derived bulk parameters (rain rate, reflectivity).
• Serves as a key ground validation dataset for the international Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and exact column names are not provided by any source.
• Conflicting license information: one source specifies 'other-license-specified', another lists 'None'.
• Conflicting last update dates: one source shows 2026-03-13, another shows 2015-10 -05.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC).

Collection Method

Collected by a Two-Dimensional Video Disdrometer instrument during the GPM Ground Validation campaign.

Time Range

July 24, 2013 to October 5, 2015

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:19:08.751590

Geography

NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, USA.