Data:TRMM

TRMM dataset information page

Short Description

Average rainfall for 30days measured by TRMM

Statement: Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

Abstract: TRMM, during its mission and broad sampling footprint between 35°N and 35°S, is providing some of the first detailed and comprehensive dataset on the four dimensional distribution of rainfall and latent heating over vastly undersampled oceanic and tropical continental regimes. Combined with concurrent measurement of the atmosphere's radiation budget, estimates of the total diabatic heating are being realized for the first time ever on a global scale.

TRMM will fill many gaps in our understanding of rainfall properties and their variation. These includes:

frequency distributions of rainfall intensity and areal coverage;
the partitioning of rainfall into convective and stratiform categories;
the vertical distribution of hydrometeors (including the structure and intensity of the stratiform region bright band);
variation of the timing of heaviest rainfall - particularly nocturnal intensification of large mesoscale convective systems over the oceans, and diurnal intensification of orographically and sea-breezed forced systems over land.

TRMM will enable mapping of larger time and space variations of rainfall in quasi-periodic circulation anomalies, such as the Madden-Julian oscillation in the western Pacific and ENSO over the broader Pacific basin.

Data format

Data type:	Climate
Data origin:	Measured
Data format:	KMZ, NetCDF
Other format:
Data resolution:	0.25 x 0.25 degrees
Datum:

Data Coverage

Spatial data coverage: 35 degrees South to 35 degrees North
Temporal data coverage: Time series
Time period covered: 3hourly data, starting from 1997 -> present

Availability

Download data: http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/mirador/presentNavigation.pl?project=TRMM&tree=project
Data source: http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/