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On the Verge of IMERG Version 07
  • +1
  • George Huffman,
  • David Bolvin,
  • Eric Nelkin,
  • Jackson Tan
George Huffman
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Corresponding Author:george.j.huffman@nasa.gov

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David Bolvin
Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
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Eric Nelkin
Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
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Jackson Tan
Universities Space Research Association
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Abstract

Development is well-advanced for the next version of the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (IMERG), labeled Version 07. IMERG is a key output of the U.S. GPM Science Team, and V07 will be the second generation in which data from both the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and GPM projects are combined into a single, uniformly processed record, currently starting in June 2000. This presentation will show several examples of successes and challenges in V06, and use these to illuminate the upgrades that have been pursued for V07. For example, the V06 IMERG near-real-time products (Early and Late Runs) show regional biases because they do not have climatological calibration (despite the documentation), and this will be done in V07. As well, the time series of precipitation-rate histograms shows a seam in the transition from TRMM calibration to GPM Core Observatory calibration at the start of June 2014. V07 will benefit from better continuity in the input calibration datasets across that boundary. A third issue is that the Kalman filter used in IMERG a) introduces a variable amount of smoothing, and b) depends on relatively simple measures of input data quality. Both of these are revisited in V07. We will report the status of IMERG Version 07 processing as of the conference time, and introduce some topics that are being considered for the future, including improved uncertainty estimates, addition of sub-monthly gauge information, and strategies for incorporating precipitation estimates from multiple, relatively short-lived small satellites.