TRMM Ground Validation Rain Gauge Rain Rate L2 1 month V7 (TRMM_2A56) at GES DISC

The program rgmin generates 1-minute hourly rain rates from discrete tipping bucket rain gauge data by applying an interpolation algorithm. The interpolating routine is based on the cubic spline routine published in the book "Numerical Recipes". The mathematical theory underlying this algorithm is presented in section 3.3 of the book along with a copy of the source code. The mathematics involved will not be described in any detail, rather the spline will be described in context with its application to the broader algorithm being applied in rgmin.

A key component of the TRMM project is the Ground Validation (GV) effort which consists of collecting data from ground-based radar, rain gauges and disdrometers. The data is quality-controlled, and then validation products are produced for comparison with TRMM satellite products.

The four primary GV sites are:

  • Darwin, Australia;
  • Houston, Texas;
  • Kwajalein, Republic of the Marshall Islands;
  • Melbourne, Florida.

A significant effort is also being supported at NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) and vicinity to provide high quality, long-term measurements of rain rates (via a network of rain gauges collocated with National Weather Service gauges), as well as drop size distributions (DSD) using a variety of instruments, including impact-type Joss Waldvogel, laser-optical Parsivel, as well as two-dimensional video disdrometers. DSD measurements are also being collected at Melbourne and Kwajalein using Joss-Waldvogel disdrometers.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer ANDREY SAVTCHENKO
Last Updated July 17, 2025, 16:49 (UTC)
Created March 31, 2025, 23:01 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_@id https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
citation Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). 2007-01-01. TRMM_2A56. TRMM Ground Validation Rain Gauge Rain Rate L2 1 month V7. Greenbelt, MD. Archived by National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Government, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/TRMM_2A56_7.html.
creator Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
graphic-preview-file https://docserver.gesdisc.eosdis.nasa.gov/public/project/GPM/browse/TRMM.logo.PNG
harvest_object_id 77e7e0d4-e8f2-4956-b6ee-0feb36f2c38f
harvest_source_id 61638e72-b36c-4866-9d28-551a3062f158
harvest_source_title DNG Legacy Data
identifier C1332654213-GES_DISC
issued 2011-07-01
landingPage https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov:443/search/concepts/C1332654213-GES_DISC.html
language {en-US}
metadata_type geospatial
modified 2016-05-09
programCode {026:001}
publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/GESDISC
release-place Greenbelt, MD
resource-type Dataset
series-name TRMM_2A56
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 5437bb690e00788558766fa438994da0c45915d155b508269b391f195e3dc8c3
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial -180.0 -40.0 180.0 40.0
temporal 1995-01-03T00:00:00Z/2016-07-31T23:59:59.999Z
theme {TRMM,geospatial}