Revision date: March 31, 2020
The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Version 2 data set includes global, monthly precipitation rates and associated random errors (RMSE), and a monthly precipitation climatology derived as an average from all GPCP data from January 1979 to December 1999. The data are derived from measured gauge data and merged with satellite estimates of rainfall. This is a portion of the version 2 GPCP data and covers the ISLSCP II period from 1986 to 1995. There are six data files included with this data set: the original precipitation rates, errors and climatology at 2.5 degrees spatial resolution, and the same data re-gridded to a 1 degree spatial resolution by the ISLSCP II staff.
The original GPCP monthly product used to create this data set has been superseded by a newer version: the GPCP Climate Data Record Version 2.3 (Monthly) (Adler et al., 2016) available at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (https://doi.org/10.7289/V56971M6).
This data set is one of the products of the International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project, Initiative II (ISLSCP II) data collection which contains 50 global time series data sets for the ten-year period 1986 to 1995. A complete description of the data, its derivation, acknowledgements, and references provided by the ISLSCP II Data Management Staff is included with this data set as the companion file 1_gpcp_precip_monthly_doc.pdf.
ISLSCP II is a consistent collection of data sets that were compiled from existing data sources and algorithms, and were designed to satisfy the needs of modelers and investigators of the global carbon, water and energy cycle. The data were acquired from a number of U.S. and international agencies, universities, and institutions. The data and documentation have undergone two peer reviews.
ISLSCP is one of several projects of Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) (https://www.gewex.org/) and has the lead role in addressing land-atmosphere interactions—process modeling, data retrieval algorithms, field experiment design and execution, and the development of global data sets.
The original GPCP monthly product used to create this data set has been superseded by a newer version: the GPCP Climate Data Record Version 2.3 (Monthly) (Adler et al., 2016) available at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (https://doi.org/10.7289/V56971M6).
Cite this data set as follows:
Huffman, G., D. Bolvin, and R. Adler. 2011. ISLSCP II Global Precipitation Climatology Project Version 2, Monthly Precipitation. In Hall, Forrest G., G. Collatz, B. Meeson, S. Los, E. Brown de Colstoun, and D. Landis (eds.). ISLSCP Initiative II Collection. Data set. Available on-line [https://daac.ornl.gov/] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1003
The archived data sets for ISLSCP II have been organized by categories. This data set is in the Hydrology, Soils, and Topography category—a collection of hydroclimatology and surface elevation data sets
Data Set Spatial Extent: Global gridded
Projection: Geographic
Data Set Spatial Resolution:1 degree and 2.5 degrees in both latitude and longitude
Data Set Temporal Extent: 1979 through 1999
Data File Format:
All of the data files in each data set within the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection are in ASCII GRID format. The file format consists of numerical fields of varying length, which are delimited by a single space and arranged in columns and rows. There are 6 data files (.zip) with this data set, 3 files with the original 2.5 degree spatial resolution, and 3 files re-gridded to a 1 degree spatial resolution.
gpcp_clim_1deg_1979-99.zip: When expanded, this file contains 12 files named gpcp_clim_1d_1979-99MM.asc with the original GPCP 1979 to 1999 precipitation monthly climatology (mm/day) at a 1 degree resolution. Here 1979-99 implies that this is an average for the particular month for the period 1979 to 1999. MM is the month from 01 to 12.
gpcp_esg_1deg.zip: When expanded, this file contains 120 files namedgpsp_esg_1d_YYYYMM00.asc with the original GPCP precipitation error estimates (mm/day) at a 1 degree resolution. Here YYYY is the year from 1986 to 1995, MM is the month from 01 to 12, and 00 means that it is a monthly average. "esg" stands for Error Satellite Gauge.
gpcp_psg_1deg.zip: When expanded, this file contains 120 files named gpcp_psg_1d_YYYYMM00.asc with the original GPCP precipitation error estimates (mm/day) at a 1 degree resolution. Here YYYY is the year from 1986 to 1995, MM is the month from 01 to 12, and 00 means that it is a monthly average. "psg" stands for Precipitation Satellite Gauge.
gpcp_clim_orig_1979-99.zip: When expanded, this file contains 12 files named gpcp_clim_orig_1979-99MM.asc with the original GPCP 1979 to 1999 precipitation monthly climatology (mm/day) at a 2.5 degree resolution. Here 1979-99 implies that this is an average for the particular month for the period 1979 to 1999. MM is the month from 01 to 12.
gpcp_esg_orig.zip: When expanded, this file contains 120 files named gpsp_esg_orig__YYYYMM00.asc with the original GPCP precipitation error estimates (mm/day) at a 2.5 degree resolution. Here YYYY is the year from 1986 to 1995, MM is the month from 01 to 12, and 00 means that it is a monthly average. "esg" stands for Error Satellite Gauge.
gpcp_psg_orig.zip: When expanded, this file contains 120 files named gpsp_psg_orig_YYYYMM00.asc with the original GPCP precipitation error estimates (mm/day) at a 2.5 degree resolution. Here YYYY is the year from 1986 to 1995, MM is the month from 01 to 12, and 00 means that it is a monthly average psg stands for Precipitation Satellite Gauge.
Data file naming conventions are further described in 1_gpcp_precip_monthly_doc.pdf and 0__gpcp_precip_month_readme.txt.
Adler, R.F., Huffman, G.J., Chang, A., Ferraro, R., Xie, P.P., Janowiak, J., Rudolf, B.,
Schneider, U., Curtis, S., Bolvin, D., and Gruber, A. 2003. The version 2 Global Precipitation
Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present). Journal of
Hydrometeorology, 4(6): 1147-1167. https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004
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Adler, R., Wang, J.-J., Sapiano, M., Huffman, G., Chiu, L., Xie, P. P., Ferraro, R., Schneider, U.,
Becker, A., Bolvin, D., Nelkin, E., Gu, G., and NOAA CDR Program. 2016. Global Precipitation
Climatology Project (GPCP) Climate Data Record (CDR), Version 2.3 (Monthly). National Centers for
Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.7289/V56971M6
These data are available through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) (https://daac.ornl.gov/).
Contact for Data Center Access Information: