Summary

Description

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint U.S.-Japan satellite mission to monitor tropical and subtropical precipitation and to estimate its associated latent heating. TRMM was successfully launched on November 27, at 4:27 PM (EST) from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The rainfall measuring instruments on the TRMM satellite include the Precipitation Radar (PR), an electronically scanning radar operating at 13.8 GHz; TRMM Microwave Image (TMI), a nine-channel passive microwave radiometer; and Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS), a five-channel visible/infrared radiometer. The purpose of the 3B42 algorithm is to produce TRMM-adjusted merged-infrared (IR) precipitation and root-mean-square (RMS) precipitation-error estimates. The algorithm consists of two separate steps. The first step uses the TRMM VIRS and TMI orbit data (TRMM products 1B01 and 2A12) and the monthly TMI/TRMM Combined Instrument (TCI) calibration parameters (from TRMM product 3B31) to produce monthly IR calibration parameters. The second step uses these derived monthly IR calibration parameters to adjust the merged-IR precipitation data, which consists of GMS, GOES-E, GOES-W, Meteosat-7, Meteosat-5, and NOAA-12 data. The final gridded, adjusted merged-IR precipitation (mm/hr) and RMS precipitation-error estimates have a daily temporal resolution and a 0.25-degree by 0.25-degree spatial resolution. Spatial coverage extends from 50 degrees south to 50 degrees north latitude. The data are stored in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), which includes both core and product specific metadata. The file size is about 0.25 MB (compressed).