TRMM Data Handling

Takuji Kubota
Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) E-mail: kubota.takuji@jaxa.jp

30/09/2008

T. Kubota, presented at AIT, Bangkok

Contents
TRMM Data Overview Analyzing Tools Tutorial for PPS Orbit Viewer

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TRMM Data Overview

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TRMM Product
Standard Product
Operational product that produced at JAXA Earth Observation Center (EOC) and NASA/GSFC Precipitation Processing System (PPS) (formerly, TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS)).

Other products
Subset Product
Sub-set of specific region or area, produced from standard product.

Research Product
Product that uses research algorithm and is produced mainly for research objectives. Products are not produced operationally.

Near Real-time Product (Level 1 and 2)

Product that is released in near real-time in order to meet requirement for operational uses, such as numerical weather prediction. Products are released within 3-to-4 hours after satellite observation to operational agencies, but data information was reduced and geolocation accuracy could be worse than standard product in several kilometers. Need authorization of NASA to access.

Near Real-time Product (Level 3)

3-hourly global rainfall products at 0.25 deg. grid boxes.

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Data Processing for Standard Products

Raw Rawdata data Level Level0 0 Level Level1 1
Instantaneous

Transferred from TRMM Quality checked raw data Calibrated data (PR received power etc.) Geophysical parameters (rain rate, etc.) Temporary and spatially averaged (monthly mean rainfall)
5

Level Level2 2 Level Level3 3

Monthly, or 3-hourly

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Standard Product Naming Rules

2 A 2 5

Processing Level
(0 - 3)

Level Type
(A - C)

Sensor 0 - 5
0: VIRS 1: TMI 2: PR 3: TRMM Combined 4: TRMM & Other Sources 5: GV Point CERES and LIS products

Algorithm Number
1 - 6

have different naming rules because they are processed and distributed by other NASA Centers.
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Processing Level
2
Level

description Data transmitted from satellite to ground stations is now set along with timeline, quality checked, and redundancy part is deleted. Not distributed to public Point Sensor specific parameter (radar reflectivity, brightness temperature, etc.), adding ancillary data and geolocation information to Level 0 and using sensor calibration results. Point Sensor specific parameter Retrieved geophysical parameters (rain rate, water vapor) , processing Level 1 data using variety of algorithms. 2-D or 3-D snap shot along with TRMM orbit. Point

Retrieved geophysical parameter

Spatially and temporally averaged/accumulated geophysical parameter produced from Level 2 data. Point

Spatially and temporally mean of Level 2

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Level 1 Products
Data Product 1B01: Visible and Infrared Radiance (VIRS) Description Calibrated VIRS (0.63, 1.6, 3.75, 10.8, and 12 um) radiances at 2.2 km resolution over a 720 km swath

Calibrated TMI (10.65, 19.35, 21, 37, and 1B11: Microwave Brightness 85.5 GHz) brightness temperatures at 5 to Temperature (TMI) 45 km resolution over a 760 km swath 1B21: Radar Power (PR) 1C21: Radar Reflectivity (PR) Calibrated PR (13.8 GHz) power at 4 km horizontal, and 250 m vertical, resolutions over a 220 km swath Calibrated PR (13.8 GHz) reflectivity at 4 km horizontal, and 250 m vertical, resolutions over a 220 km swath

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Level 2 Products
Data Product 2A12: Hydrometeor Profile (TMI) 2A21: Radar Surface CrossSection (PR) 2A23: Radar Rain Characteristics (PR) 2A25: Radar Rainfall Rate and Profile (PR) 2B31: Combined Rainfall Profile (PR, TMI)
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Description TMI Hydrometeor (cloud liquid water, prec. water, cloud ice, prec. ice) profiles in 14 layers at 5 km horizontal resolution, along with latent heat and surface rain, over a 760 km swath PR (13.8 GHz) normalized surface cross-section at 4 km horizontal resolution and path attenuation (in case of rain), over a 220 km swath Rain type; storm, freezing, and bright band heights; from PR (13.8 GHz) at 4 km horizontal resolution over a 220 km swath PR (13.8 GHz) rain rate, reflectivity, and attenuation profiles, at 4 km horizontal, and 250 m vertical, resolutions, over a 220 km swath Combined PR/TMI rain rate and path-integrated attenuation at 4 km horizontal, and 250 m vertical, resolutions, over a 220 km swath
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Level 3 Products
Data Product 3A11: Monthly 5 x 5 Oceanic Rainfall 3A12: Monthly 0.5 x 0.5 mean 2A12, profile, and surface rainfall 3A25: Monthly 5x5 and .5x.5 Spaceborne Radar Rainfall 3A26: Monthly 5 x 5 Surface Rain Total 3B31: Monthly 5 x 5 Combined Rainfall 3B42: 3-Hour 0.25 x 0.25 merged TRMM and other satellite estimates 3B43: Monthly 0.25 x 0.25 merged TRMM and other sources estimates
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Description Rain rate, conditional rain rate, rain frequency, and freezing height for a latitude band from 40 degree N to 40 degree S, from TMI 0.5 x 0.5 degree gridded monthly product comprised of mean 2A12 data and calculated vertical hydrometeor profiles as well as mean surface rainfall Total and conditional rain rate, radar reflectivity, path-integrated attenuation at 2, 4, 6, 10, 15 km for convective and stratiform rain; storm, freezing, and bright band heights, and snow-ice layer depth for a latitude band from 40N to 40S, from PR Rain rate probability distribution at surface, 2 km, and 4 km for a latitude band from 40N to 40S, from PR Rain rate, cloud liquid water, rain water, cloud ice, grauples at 14 levels for a latitude band from 40 degree N to 40 degree S, from PR and TMI Calibrated IR merged with TRMM and other satellite data

Merged 3B-42 and rain gauge estimates

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PR Observation at each Level

Level 0

1B21

1C21

2A21

2A25

2A23

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Level and Data Array

0

end start
0

Level 1 and Level 2

Level 3
0 40N

scaling up Data is set in sequence as TRMM observed for each orbit.

0

40S

Data is set in certain grid size in global area, averaged in certain period.

Note that PR product also has vertical array.

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TRMM/PR Data Structure

Point
le) gr an u

Data matrix for vertical direction is stored from upper (higher altitude) to lower. Altitude of Level 2 data was corrected.
gr an u ap pr o x. 90 00 sc an (fo r 1 le)

ap pr o

x.

90 00

sc

an

(fo r

ic e Sl

140 pixel

ic e Sl

Level 1
surface

80 pixel

Level 2

surface 49 pixel 49 pixel

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2A25: PR Profile
PR (13.8 GHz) rain rate, reflectivity, and attenuation profiles, at 4 km horizontal, and 250 m vertical, resolutions, over a 220 km swath

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3A25: PR Monthly Rainfall

Monthly accumulated rain (mm/month) Daily accumulated rain x Number of days of month

Daily accumulated rain (mm/day)

Monthly mean rain rate x 24

Monthly mean rain rate (mm/h) [unconditional] Mean rain rate x (Rain count number/Total count)

3A25 data Monthly mean rainrate (mm/h) Rain count number Total count number
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Data Format
HDF-EOS Format
HDFHierarchical Data Format, Specifiying
Satellite observation.

Structure of HDF Format

Metadata + Scientific Data Sets (SDS) + V data
Category Characteristics
Detailed description of file in text format multi-dimension matrix data consisting from data elements in same type table data which can combine data in different type

Example algorithm version, pixel count number, etc. radar reflectivity rain data by each scan

Metadata
SDS

Scientific Data Sets Vdata

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Note for data handling (1)

maneuver
Orbit maintenance maneuver (Delta-V maneuver)
To keep satellite altitude at appropriate range. Currently, operated once in 7-10 days.

180 degree yaw maneuver

To avoid VIRS radiation cooling unit to go sun side. Operated once in 2-4 weeks
Point

90 degree yaw maneuver

Since satellite flying direction is reversed at this maneuver, scan direction is also reversed. Need to check geolocation of each scan data in the same time.

To assess PR cross-track antenna pattern. Operated once in half year.

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180-degree Yaw Maneuver

Flying direction

Flying direction

1 2 3

760km
3 21
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Note for Data Handling (2)

Other factor for erroneous observation
Radio interference
example in Australia, etc.
Point

Natural phenomena
Leonid meteor shower, etc.

PR is not observe these area because the same frequency to PR is used in the ground.

Sensor maintenance
operated in non-observation mode

Trouble in solar array panel

VIRS stopped operation from 6 Sep. to 17 Oct. 2002

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Note for Data Handling (3)

Handling of missing data
Each missing scan filled by Missing Value to indicate they are mission data
Data type Max. of missing value 1-byte integer -99 2-byte integer -9999 4-byte integer -9999 4-byte real -9999.9 8-byte real -9999.9

Numeric value lower than upper indicates mission data or invalid

When all data in a orbit is missing, scan data is omitted and Orbit Size in Metadata element will be 0.
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Note for Data Handling (4)

TRMM altitude change
Observation in August 2001 is;
Altitude of orbit
350km Altitude rising period 402.5 km

Start date & orbit number

2001/8/1 21164 2001/8/7 21268 2001/8/25 21541

End date & orbit number

2001/8/7 21267 2001/8/24 21540 2001/8/31 21649

Data distribution
YES Empty granule YES

PR Level 3 product for August 2001 was made from about 13 days (1-7 Aug. and 25-31 Aug.) eliminated data during altitude rising period Data version number was changed to 5A post-boost.
Point
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Note that using data in different version number. Version number is confirmed from file name.
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Analyzing Tools

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How to Get the TRMM Online Data (1)

PR/TMI/VIRS Data DAAC (Goddard Distributed Active Archive Center - NASA/GSFC) http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/TRMM/ Level 1, 2, 3 standard products available Precipitation Processing System (PPS) - NASA/GSFC http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/ PPS Toolkit, HDF information Gridded text data (3G68) available (ftp://trmmopen.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/) LIS (Home Page/download data) http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/ TRMM Realtime System http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmmrt/index.htm TRMM 3 Hourly Global Rainfall - NASA/GSFC http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Near real-time 3-hourly rainfall data (3B40RT, 3B41RT, 3B42RT)

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How to Get the TRMM Online Data (2)

EOC home page JAXA/EOC
http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/about/distribution/index.html Satellite information and images, data order

EORC TRMM home page

- JAXA/EORC

http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/TRMM/index_e.htm TRMM data in Asia monsoon and Japan area Tropical cyclone database TRMM Realtime Tropical Cyclone Monitoring (images only)

GSMaP_NRT home page - JAXA/EORC

http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/GSMaP/index.htm Research Product

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C and FORTRAN Programming to Handle Standard Products

TRMM data has been produced as the format of HDF version 4. To read HDF files using your programs written by either C or FOTRAN, you need to install HDF library on your environment, which freely provided by NCSA (http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu). To help the users of the TRMM products, PPS has provided the PPS/TSDIS Science Algorithm Toolkit based on the HDF library (http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/tsdis_redesign/software.html). The toolkit provides routines for reading and writing data to and from the HDF files; routines are provide for Level 1-3 products and for both satellite and GV. Each of the routines in the toolkit are callable in either C or FORTRAN. The toolkit also includes routines for reading land/sea data and topographical data.

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Before Programming
Install of HDF Library
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF/HDF_Current/bin/ Download library for your computer OS and install

Install of PPS/TSDIS Toolkit

http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/tsdis/tsdistk.html Download PPS/TSDIS Toolkit and install Download elevation/land-sea data and install

Download tutorial (Tutorial for Reading TRMM Data Products), file specification (TSDIS-TSU Interface Control Specification) and sample programs for C and FORTRAN
http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/tsdis_redesign/SelectedDoc s.html
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TRMM Analysis Tool

PPS/TSDIS Orbit Viewer
For quick look. Easy to make browse image. For UNIX, Linux and Windows. Demonstration later.

NCSA HDF Library

C and FORTRAN library for reading and writing HDF format data. For UNIX and Linux.

PPS/TSDIS Toolkit
C and FORTRAN library based HDF Library. For TRMM data (PR,TMI,VIRS,COMB,GV) only. For UNIX and Linux.
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TRMM 3 hourly Global Rain Map in GSFC

Research Product in NASA/GSFC (for GPM) 3B40RT: TMI+SSMI
Latest 3 Hourly Global Rainfall

3B41RT: Geo-stationary IR data 3B42RT: TMI+SSMI+IR

Online data available within near-real time ( 6 hours)

Latest Week of Global Rainfall Accumulation

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http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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JAXA/EORC Tropical Cyclone Database (for TRMM, AMSR-E and AMSR) http://sharaku.eorc.jaxa.jp/TYP_DB/index_e.shtml
Browse images, 3D movies and data of tropical cyclones observed by TRMM, Aqua/AMSR-E, Midori-II/AMSR are available.

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TRMM Tropical Cyclone Real-time Monitoring

http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/TRMM/NRTtyphoon/index_e.htm Near real-time browse images of tropical cyclones (typhoons) observed by TRMM is available.

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PPS/TSDIS Orbit Viewer

PPS/TSDIS Orbit Viewer
For quick look. Easy to make browse image. For UNIX, Linux and Windows. Demonstration later. http://pps.gsfc.nasa.gov/TSDISorbitViewer/release.html

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Sample Image of Orbit Viewer

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Tutorial for PPS Orbit Viewer

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Install Viewer and Datasets

Insert CD-ROM Open OrbitViewer folder and click orbit.1.3.6_winXP32bit.exe file for installing Tutorial text provide by PPS/TSDIS is in a same folder TRMM_orbit.zip and TC_DB.zip are compressed. Copy them to your PC and uncompress them.

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Look at Data Sample (1)

In the directry TRMM_orbit, 1B01.071005.56330.6.HDF (VIRS) 1B11.071005.56330.6.HDF (TMI Brightness Temperature) 2A12.071005.56330.6.HDF (TMI rain rate) 2A25.071005.56330.6.HDF (PR Rain rate) 3A25.071001.6A.HDF (Monthly PR Rain rate)
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Look at Data Sample (2)

TC_DB folder includes 12 sample data of TRMM archived at JAXA/EORC Tropical Cyclone Database
1B01...HDF (VIRS) 1B11...HDF (TMI Brightness Temperature) 2A12...HDF (TMI rain rate) 2A25...HDF (PR Rain rate)

See images in TC_DB/list for your reference.

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TC_DB List (1)

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TC_DB List (2)

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Google Earth Files

kmz_files in the CD-ROM is for the Google Earth. You can view these files by an install of the Google Earth.
http://earth.google.com/intl/en/
Time control bar: click for time step.

You can see movies about this in the directry GSMaP_movie.

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Lets practice !
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Install the orbit viewer. Start orbit viewer. Open TRMM_orbit/2A25.071005.56330.6.HDF. Select e_SurfRain in Arrays.

Click east of Philippines in the bottom panel. Click anywhere in the PR path. You can save images by Orbit viewer. Next step: see Figure 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, and 3.7 in Tutorial text. 9. Further step: open other HDF files in the CDROM.
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