NASA HRAC Project: High-Resolution Altitude-Corrected Precipitation for the CONUS

A High-Resolution Altitude-Corrected precipitation product covering the entire contiguous United States at 1-kilometer resolution. The dataset is constructed by applying a correction function to the TMPA 3B43 monthly satellite product, using elevation data resampled to a ~1km grid to reduce bias observed at higher altitudes. The corrected product was verified against approximately 9,200 gauge measurements across the country.

Use Cases

• Modeling hydrological processes based on high-resolution, elevation-corrected precipitation data.
• Analyzing satellite precipitation bias relative to land surface elevation mentioned in the description.
• Validating and improving satellite-derived rainfall estimates using the described gauge network.
• Studying spatial precipitation patterns across the CONUS at a finer 1-km resolution.

Strengths

• Verified against a substantial network of approximately 9,200 gauge measurements.
• Provides a 1-kilometer spatial resolution, which is an improvement over the original 0.25° product.
• Addresses a documented bias where the source product underestimates precipitation at elevations above 1,500 meters.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA

Collection Method

Derived from the TMPA 3B43 monthly satellite product, corrected using gauge measurements and elevation data.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Contiguous United States (CONUS)