revised7/18/13byG.

Huffman

Algorithm3B42:TRMMMergedHQ/InfraredPrecipitation
AlgorithmOverview
ThepurposeofAlgorithm3B42istoproduceTropicalRainfallMeasuringMission(TRMM)mergedhighquality
(HQ)/infrared(IR)precipitationandrootmeansquare(RMS)precipitationerrorestimates.Thesegriddedestimates
areona3hourtemporalresolutionanda0.25degreeby0.25degreespatialresolutioninaglobalbeltextending
from50degreesSouthto50degreesNorthlatitude.
The3B42estimatesareproducedinfourstages;(1)themicrowaveprecipitationestimatesarecalibratedand
combined,(2)infraredprecipitationestimatesarecreatedusingthecalibratedmicrowaveprecipitation,(3)the
microwaveandIRestimatesarecombined,and(4)rescalingtomonthlydataisapplied.Eachprecipitationfieldis
bestinterpretedastheprecipitationrateeffectiveatthenominalobservationtime(Huffmanetal.2007).
a.HighQuality(HQ)microwaveestimates
Alloftheavailablepassivemicrowavedataareconvertedtoprecipitationestimatespriortouse,theneachdatasetis
averagedtothe0.25spatialgridoverthetimerange90minutesfromthenominalobservationtime.Allofthese
estimatesareadjustedtoa"best"estimateusingprobabilitymatchingofprecipitationratehistogramsassembled
fromcoincidentdata.ThealgorithmtakestheTRMMCombinedInstrument(TCI;2B31)asthecalibratingdata
source.However,thecoincidenceofTCIwithanyofthesensorsotherthantheTRMMMicrowaveImager(TMI;
2A12)ishighlysparse,soweestablishaTCITMIcalibration,thenapplythattoTMIcalibrationsoftheother
sensorstoestimatetheTCIcalibratedvalues.TheTCITMIrelationshipiscomputedona1x1gridforeach
monthusingthatmonthscoincidentdatatoaccommodatethesomewhatdifferentclimatologiesofthetwo
estimates.PreliminaryworkshowedthattheTMIcalibrationsoftheothersensorsestimatesareadequately
representedbyclimatologicallybasedcoefficientsrepresentinglargeareas.Offline,theGPROFSSMI,GPROF
SSMIS,GPROFAMSR,AMSUB,andMHSprecipitationestimateshavebeenclimatologicallyprobability
matchedto2A12.ThecalibrationsofAMSUB,MHS,SSMI,andAMSREtoTMIhaveonesetofcoefficientsfor
eachsensortypeforlandand14setsforocean,whileSSMISiscalibratedseparatelyforeachsatellite,againhaving
onesetforlandand14forocean.Theoceanlatitudebandsare15overlappinglatitudebandscenteredonthe5
bands3530S,3025S,2520S,,2025N,2530N,and3035N.Theoutermostbandsareusedintheir
respectivehemispheresforallhigherlatitudecalibrationsduetothelackofTMIdatabeyondabout38.The
SSMISarecalibratedindividuallyduetoparticularcalibrationissuesforeachsatellite.AMSREusesa2monthset
ofmatchupstoensuresufficientsampling,whilealloftheothersworkwithsinglemonthaccumulations.The
coefficientsarecomputedseparatelyforeachseason.Finally,avolumeadjustmentfactoriscomputedforeachset
toensurethattotalTMIprecipitationispreservedinthesetransformations.
Oncetheestimatesarecalibratedforeachsatelliteandauditedfor>40%"ambiguouspixels",thegridispopulated
bythe"best"datafromallavailableoverpasses,althoughthemostlikelynumberofoverpassesinthe3hrwindow
foragivengridboxiseitheroneorzero.Whentherearemultipleoverpasses,datafromTCI,TCIadjustedTMI,
TCIadjustedAMSRE,andTCIadjustedSSM/Iareaveragedtogether,andTCIadjustedAMSUB/MHSestimates
areusedifnoneoftheothersareavailableforthegridbox.Testsshowthatthehistogramofprecipitationrateis
somewhatsensitivetothenumberofoverpassesaveragedtogetherwhenthatnumberissmall.Accordingly,inthe
futureweexpecttotestaschemetakingthesingle"best"overpassinthe3hrperiod.
b.VariableRainRate(VAR)Infrared(IR)estimates
3B42usestwodifferentIRdatasetsforcreatingthecompleterecordof3hourly0.25griddedTbs.Intheperiod1
January1998to6February2000,10km(subsampled),3hourlygridsofIRdatafromtheNationalClimaticData
Center(NCDC)GridSatB1wereusedinthe3B42processing.Fortheperiod1January199803UTC16June
1998geoIRdatawerenotavailableintheIndianOceansector,buthighzenithangledatafromadjacentgeo
satellitesisgenerallysufficientforfillin.Fortheperiodfrom7February2000onwards,theClimatePrediction
Center(CPC)MergedIRisused.ForeachhourtheIRdataareaveragedto0.25resolutionandcombinedinto
hourlyfilesas30minutesfromthenominaltime.TheamountofimagerydeliveredtoNCDCandCPCvariesby
satelliteoperator,butinternationalagreementsmandatethatfullcoverageisprovidedforthe3hourlysynoptic
times(00Z,03Z,,21Z).HistogramsoftimespacematchedHQprecipitationratesandIRTbs,eachrepresented
onthesame3hourly0.25grid,areaccumulatedforamonth,andthenusedtocreatespatiallyvaryingcalibration
coefficientsthatconvertIRTbstoprecipitationrates.AsintheHQ,thecalibrationintervalfortheIRisacalendar

3B42 Version 7 Web Description 1

month,andtheresultingadjustmentsareappliedtodataforthesamecalendarmonth.Thischoiceisintendedto
keepthedependentandindependentdatasetsforthecalibrationsascloseaspossibleintime.Infact,thefullmonth
ofdataintheestimatesincludesthedependentdata.Asecondambiguousscreeningisperformedonthematched
microwavedataafteraccumulation;comparedtoinstantaneousscreening,themonthlyscreeningprovidesbetter
controlofartifacts.
Bydesign,thereisnoprecipitationwhenthe0.25x0.25averageTbisgreaterthanthelocalthresholdvaluethat
matchesthefrequencyofprecipitationintheIRtothatofthemicrowave.IncreasinglycolderTbsareassigned
increasinglylargeprecipitationratesusinghistogrammatching.Thosegridboxesthatlackcoincidentdata
throughoutthemonth,usuallyduetocoldlanddropoutsorambiguousediting,aregivencalibrationcoefficientsby
smoothfillinghistogramsofcoincidentdatafromsurroundinggridboxes.Finally,preliminarytestingshowedthat
theprecipitationratesassignedtothecoldestTbsbystrictprobabilitymatchingtendedtoshowunphysical
fluctuations.Toamelioratethiseffect,asomewhatsubjectivelychosencoldest0.17%oftheTbhistogramis
specifiedbyafourthorderpolynomialfittoaclimatologyofcoldest0.17%precipitationratepointsaroundthe
globe.Ineachgridboxaconstantisaddedtoeachpointontheclimatologicalcurvesuchthatitispiecewise
continuouswiththegridboxsTbprecipitationratecurveatthe0.17%Tb.
Oncecomputed,theHQIRcalibrationcoefficientsareappliedtoeach3hourlyIRdatasetduringthemonth.
c.CombinedHQandVARestimates
Theultimategoalofthisalgorithmistoprovidethe"best"estimateofprecipitationineachgridboxateach
observationtime.Itisfrequentlyquitechallengingtocombinedifferentestimatesofanintermittentfieldsuchas
precipitation.Theprocessofcombiningpassivemicrowaveestimatesisrelativelywellbehavedbecausethesensors
arequitesimilarandGPROFisusedformostretrievals.ThisisnotthecasefortheHQandVARfields.
WecurrentlytakeasimpleapproachforcombiningtheHQandVARestimates,namelythephysicallybasedHQ
estimatesaretaken"asis"whereavailable,andtheremaininggridboxesarefilledwithVARestimates.This
schemeprovidesthe"best"localestimate,attheexpenseofatimeseriesthatisbuiltfromdatasetsdisplaying
heterogeneousstatistics.
d.Rescalingtomonthlydata
Thefinalstepingenerating3B42istheindirectuseofraingaugedata.Itishighlyadvantageoustoincluderain
gaugedataincombinationdatasets.However,experienceshowsthatonanytimescaleshorterthanamonththe
gaugedataarenotreportedwithsufficientdensitynorreportedwithconsistentobservationalintervalstowarrant
directinclusioninaglobalalgorithmthatprovidessubmonthlyresolution.Theauthorssolvedthisissueinthe
GPCPOneDegreeDailycombinationdatasetbyscalingtheshortperiodestimatestosumtoamonthlyestimate
thatincludesmonthlygaugedata(Huffmanetal.2001).Here,wetakeasimilarapproachwiththe3B42estimates.
Allavailable3hourlyHQ+VARestimatesaresummedoveracalendarmonthtocreateamonthlymultisatellite
(MS)product.TheMSandgaugearecombinedtocreateapostrealtimemonthlysatellitegaugecombination(SG),
whichisaTRMMproductinitsownright(3B43).ThenthefieldofSG/MSratiosiscomputed(withcontrols)and
appliedtoscaleeach3hourlyfieldinthemonth.
FileFormat
ThefilecontentdescriptionforProduct3B42canbeobtainedfromTRMMFileSpecificationsavailableat
http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/Documents/filespec.TRMM.V7.pdf.
KnownDeficiencies
HQdatasourcesareintroducedatdifferentpointsinthedatarecord.Therefore,variationsinHQcoveragewill
occurthroughouttherecord,increasingastimeprogresses.Mostcritically,theintroductionofAMSUBover2000
2003graduallyintroducedadeficiencyintheoccurrenceofprecipitation,althoughtheamountsareapproximately
correctedatthemonthlyscale.Aswell,inVersion7thecalibratedmicrowavedataaresome35%higherthanthe
2B31calibrator,forreasonsnotyetunderstood.
PlannedImprovements
EffortsarecurrentlyfocusingonthevalidationoftheProduct3B42precipitationestimateswithraingaugedata,
groundbasedradardata,anddatafromothersatellites.The3B42datasetwillbesupersededbytheGlobal
PrecipitationMeasurement(GPM)missionproduct3IMERGHH,producedwiththeIntegratedMultisatellitE
RetrievalsforGPM(IMERG)algorithm(Huffman2012).Thetransitionisexpectedtohappeninlate2014.
References

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Adler,R.F.,G.J.Huffman,A.Chang,R.Ferraro,P.Xie,J.Janowiak,B.Rudolf,U.Schneider,S.Curtis,D.Bolvin,
A.Gruber,J.Susskind,P.Arkin,E.J.Nelkin,2003:TheVersion2GlobalPrecipitationClimatologyProject(GPCP)
MonthlyPrecipitationAnalysis(1979Present).J.Hydrometeor.,4(6),11471167.
Huffman,G.J.,1997:EstimatesofRootMeanSquareRandomErrorforFiniteSamplesofEstimatedPrecipitation,
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Huffman,G.J.,2012:AlgorithmTheoreticalBasisDocument(ATBD)Version3.0fortheNASAGlobal
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Huffman,G.J.,R.F.Adler,D.T.Bolvin,G.Gu,E.J.Nelkin,K.P.Bowman,Y.Hong,E.F.Stocker,D.B.Wolff,
2007:TheTRMMMultisatellitePrecipitationAnalysis:QuasiGlobal,MultiYear,CombinedSensorPrecipitation
EstimatesatFineScale.J.Hydrometeor.,8(1),3855.
Huffman,G.J.,R.F.Adler,M.Morrissey,D.T.Bolvin,S.Curtis,R.Joyce,BMcGavock,J.Susskind,2001:Global
PrecipitationatOneDegreeDailyResolutionfromMultiSatelliteObservations.J.Hydrometeor.,2(1),3650.
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aTechniqueforCombiningSatelliteBasedEstimates,RainGaugeAnalysis,andNWPModelPrecipitation
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