CHIRPS Precipitation, Copernicus DEM, (Ag)ERA5 Meteorological Data, GEOS-5 Meteorological Data, IMERG Precipitation, Landsat satellites, MODIS sensors, MSG satellites, Sentinel-2 satellites, VIIRS sensors and WorldCover Land Cover

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) IMERG

NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) Late product is used to calculate Interception.

Purpose of the data

NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) algorithm combines data from a network of satellites to estimate precipitation over the majority of the Earth's surface. IMERG Precipitation data is used for the production of the following data components:
- Input to the estimation of Interception at L1, L2 and L3

The L1 PCP product is based on the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) dataset. However, CHIRPS does not provide data above 50° N/S. To be able to estimate Interception above these latitudes, the GPM dataset is used as input for the Interception model.

Approach

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is an international network of satellites that provide next-generation global observations of rain and snow, and is designed as the successor of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM),

IMERG fuses precipitation estimates collected during the TRMM satellite’s operation (2000 - 2015) with recent precipitation estimates collected by the GPM mission (2014 - present) creating a continuous precipitation dataset for 20+ years. IMERG is available in near real-time with estimates of Earth’s precipitation updated every half-hour.

IMERG has a spatial resolution of 0.1 degrees with a global coverage. It is available from 1 June 2000 to present on the NASA GES DISC.

Challenges

Alternative resources

In case IMERG is not available, several other precipitation datasets exist, such as GEOS-5, CHIRPS and GSMAP.