The new version of these data is in GPM-like format and can be found under the name GPM_2AGPROFTRMMTMI_CLIM.
This dataset, 2A12, ”TMI Profiling”, generates surface rainfall and vertical hydrometeor profiles on a pixel by pixel basis from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) brightness temperature data using the Goddard Profiling algorithm GPROF2010. Because the vertical information comes from a radiometer, it is not written out in independent vertical layers like the TRMM Precipitation Radar. Instead, the output is referenced to one of 100 typical structures for each hydrometeor or heating profile. These vertical structures are referenced as clusters in the output structure. Vertical hydrometeor profiles can be reconstructed to 28 layers by knowing the cluster number (i.e. shape) of the profile and a scale factor that is written for each pixel.
This product contains hydrometeor profiles of cloud liquid water, precipitation water, cloud ice water, precipitation ice, rainfall type, and latent heating in 28 atmospheric layers.
Changes in horizontal resolution resulting from the TRMM boost that occurred on 24 August 2001:
Pre-Boost (before 7 August 2001): Temporal Resolution: 91.5 min/orbit ~ 16 orbits/day; Swath Width: 760 km; Horizontal Resolution: 4.4 km
Post-Boost (after 24 August 2001): Temporal Resolution: 92.5 min/orbit ~ 16 orbits/day; Swath Width: 878 km; Horizontal Resolution: 5.1 km