LBA-ECO LC-09: Daily Precipitation in Amazonian Brazil, 1961-1998

Three meteorological stations in Pará, Brazil, provide daily total precipitation data from 1961 to 1998. The dataset covers two Amazonian research sites, Altamira and Santarém, with station-specific coverage periods ranging from 1961-1990 to 1982-1998. Data was retrieved from the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) network and compiled by NASA.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term precipitation trends in the Amazon based on daily station records.
• Calibrating or validating regional climate models using ground-based rainfall data.
• Studying the hydrological cycle and water availability near specific Amazonian research sites.
• Investigating inter-annual climate variability, such as El Niño effects, on local rainfall.

Strengths

• Provides a multi-decade temporal coverage from 1961 to 1998.
• Contains data from three distinct stations, offering spatial context within the Amazon region.
• Originates from a national meteorological authority (INMET) and is associated with a major scientific organization (NASA).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row counts, and file size are not provided in the available descriptions.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (1998 vs. 2026), suggesting potential staleness or unclear maintenance.
• Data availability varies significantly by station, with the longest record spanning 30 years and the shortest only 10 years.

Provenance

Source

Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) network, compiled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Collection Method

Data retrieved from ground-based meteorological stations.

Time Range

1961 to 1998 (station-specific sub-ranges: 1961-1990, 1982-1998, 1983-1992).

Freshness

The most recent platform update is listed as 2026-04-10, but the underlying data collection ended in 1998.

Geography

Pará, Brazil, specifically stations near Altamira and Santarém in the Amazon Basin.