GPM_2AGPROFF18SSMIS_CLIM: Climate-Referenced Satellite Precipitation Profiles

GPM_2AGPROFF18SSMIS_CLIM is a Version 07 climate-reference dataset from NASA's GES DISC, providing precipitation and atmospheric profiles from the SSMIS sensor on the DMSP F18 satellite. The data uses a Bayesian GPROF algorithm with ECMWF-Interim reanalysis for homogeneous climate records and offers 1.5-hour temporal and 12 km spatial resolution. It is part of a constellation approach to achieve broad 3-hour global coverage.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term precipitation climatology based on the climate-referenced, homogeneous ancillary data.
• Analyzing vertical cloud and precipitation hydrometeor structure based on the Bayesian retrieval algorithm's profiling capability.
• Studying atmospheric water vapor distribution based on the retrieved science fields from passive microwave sensors.
• Validating and calibrating other precipitation datasets based on the large sampling provided by the GPM constellation.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent climate time series using homogeneous ECMWF-Interim reanalysis ancillary data.
• Employs a parametric Bayesian algorithm suitable for a multi-sensor constellation approach.
• Offers 1.5-hour temporal and 12 km spatial resolution for detailed profiling.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.
• The 'CLIM' product uses ECMWF-Interim data with a 2-3 month lag behind regular production.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Retrieved via the GPROF algorithm from the SSMIS sensor on the DMSP F18 satellite.

Time Range

Climate time series; specific range not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 02:14:43.902211; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.