TRMM_3A54UW: Monthly Rain Accumulation Grids

TRMM Ground Validation Radar Site Rain Type Totals Map L3 1 month 2 km V7 provides monthly rain accumulation data in a cartesian grid format. The dataset is derived from ground-based radar, rain gauges, and disdrometers at primary validation sites including Darwin, Houston, Kwajalein, and Melbourne. It serves as a quality-controlled reference for validating precipitation measurements from the TRMM satellite.

Use Cases

• Validating TRMM satellite precipitation products based on ground-based radar and gauge data
• Analyzing monthly rain accumulation patterns at specific ground validation sites
• Studying drop size distributions (DSD) using data from Joss Waldvogel and Parsivel disdrometers
• Comparing long-term rain rate measurements from collocated National Weather Service gauges

Strengths

• Data is quality-controlled as part of the TRMM Ground Validation effort
• Includes measurements from a variety of instruments: radar, rain gauges, and multiple disdrometer types
• Provides a 2 km resolution grid with a defined horizontal extent of 150x150 km

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows) are unknown across all platforms
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: one lists 2026-04-09, another lists 2000-12-31
• Detailed metadata such as author and specific license terms are not provided

Provenance

Source

University of Washington TRMM Ground Validation products, managed by GES_DISC

Collection Method

Data collected from ground-based radar, rain gauges, and disdrometers, then processed into monthly accumulation grids

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:27:41.968321

Geography

Primary sites: Darwin, Australia; Houston, Texas; Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands; Melbourne, Florida; also NASA Wallops Flight Facility vicinity