TRMM_2A54UW: Rain Type Maps from Ground Radar

Four primary sites in Darwin, Houston, Kwajalein, and Melbourne provide data for this product, which is part of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Ground Validation effort. It contains instantaneous convective-stratiform classification grids derived from radar data, with values indicating no echo (0), stratiform (1), or convective (2) precipitation. The dataset is designed for validating satellite precipitation estimates by comparing them with quality-controlled ground measurements from radar, rain gauges, and disdrometers.

Use Cases

• Validating TRMM satellite precipitation products based on ground-based radar classification.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of convective and stratiform rain types.
• Comparing precipitation characteristics across different geographic sites (e.g., Darwin vs. Houston).
• Studying drop size distributions (DSD) by linking classification maps with disdrometer measurements.

Strengths

• Data is quality-controlled as part of the TRMM Ground Validation effort.
• Coverage includes four primary, geographically diverse validation sites.
• Grids have a defined spatial resolution with a minimum range of 17 km and a maximum range of 150 km.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one lists 2026-04-09, another lists 2003-12-31.
• The 'alt' field in the netCDF files is assigned an elevation angle rather than true altitude, which may be confusing.

Provenance

Source

University of Washington TRMM Ground Validation products, distributed by GES DISC.

Collection Method

Data is collected from ground-based radar, rain gauges, and disdrometers, then processed into classification grids.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:40:03.794252 (from nasa_earthdata and datagov, but conflicting with older date on another nasa_earthdata entry)

Geography

Primary sites: Darwin, Australia; Houston, Texas; Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands; Melbourne, Florida. Additional measurements at NASA Wallops Flight Facility.