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GPCC Global Preciptiation Climatology Centre.

One-line description: GPCC Precipitation Data Set: Monthly Mean Monitoring and Full Data.

Temporal Coverage:

  • Monthly values 1950/01 through present.

Spatial Coverage:

  • 1.0 degree latitude x 1.0 degree longitude global grid (360x180)
  • 0.5 degree latitude x 0.5 degree longitude global grid (720x180)
  • 90.0N - 90.0S, 0.0E - 360.0E

Levels:

  • N/A

Update Schedule:

  • Monthly

Download/Plot Data:

Variable units Abbreviation Statistic Plot/Subset Data Download netCDF File
Precipitation mm/day precip Mean (1.0x1.0 combined) plot precip.1x1.combined.mon.mean.nc
Precipitation mm/day precip Mean (1x1 full data product) plot precip.1x1.mon.mean.nc
Precipitation mm/day precip mean (1x1 monitoring) plot precip.1x1.monitor.mon.mean.nc
Precipitation mm/day precip LTM (0.5 full monitoring) plot precip.mon.ltm.19792000.nc
Precipitation mm/day precip LTM (1.0 full monitoring) plot precip.1x1.mon.ltm.19792000.nc

Usage Restrictions:

Detailed Description:

  • Two datasets are provided here. First is the monitoring product for the period 1986 to present, based on quality-controlled data from 7,000 stations. The secod is the Full Data Product for the period 1951 to 2004, based on quality-controlled data from a larger number of stations (up to 43,000) with irregular coverage in time. This product is optimized for best spatial coverage and use for water budget studies.
  • Note that the gridded gauge-analysis products provided by the GPCC are not yet bias corrected for systematic gauge measuring errors. However, the GPCC provides climatological estimates for that error as well as the number of gauges used on the grid (accessible via their Visualizer).

Caveats:

  • Users of the gauge-based gridded precipitation totals are recommended to respect the database (number of stations per grid) and to apply the correction factors. These are obtained in the Visualizer

Related File Naming & Structure Information:

File Names:

  • /Datasets.private/gpcc/precip.(optresolution).(combined).stat.(years).nc

OpenDap File Names:

  • http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/thredds/dodsC/Datasets.private/gpcc/precip.(optresolution).(combined).stat.(years).nc

Dataset Format and Size:

  • PSD standard NetCDF 670 Mbyte file for .5x.5 monthly file (packed).
  • PSD standard NetCDF 167 Mbyte file for 1x1 file (packed).
  • 1 file, 1x1 full data 1951-2004.
  • 1 file, 0.5x0.5 full data 1951-2004
  • 1 file, 1x1 monitoring product 2000-present
  • 1 file, 1x1 combined full/monitoring product 1951-present. full until Jan 2005.
  • 1 file, 1x1 long term mean of precipitation.
  • 1 file, 0.5x0.5long term mean of precipitation.

Missing Data:

  • Missing data is flagged with a value of 32767s. The enhanced version has no missing; the standard does.

Citation:

  • Please cite ALL references
  • Please note: If you acquire GPCC Precipitation data products from PSD, we ask that you acknowledge us in your use of the data. This may be done by including text such as GPCC Precipitation data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/ in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSD to justify keeping the GPCC Precipitation data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

References:

  • Rudolf, B., C. Beck, J. Grieser, U. Schneider (2005): Global Precipitation Analysis Products. Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC), DWD, Internet publication, 1-8
  • Rudolf, B., U. Schneider (2005): Calculation of Gridded Precipitation Data for the Global Land-Surface using in-situ Gauge Observations, Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop of the International Precipitation Working Group IPWG, Monterey October 2004, EUMETSAT, ISBN 92-9110-070-6, ISSN 1727-432X, 231-247.
  • Rudolf, B., H. Hauschild, W. Rueth and U. Schneider (1994): Terrestrial Precipitation Analysis: Operational Method and Required Density of Point Measurements. In: Global Precipitations and Climate Change (Ed. M. Desbois, F. Desalmond), NATO ASI Series I, Vol. 26, Springer-Verlag, p. 173-186.
  • Rudolf, B., T. Fuchs, U. Schneider and A. Meyer-Christoffer (2003): Introduction of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC), Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach a.M.; pp. 16, available on request per email gpcc@dwd.de or by download from GPCC's Website
  • Beck, C. , J. Grieser and B. Rudolf (2005): A New Monthly Precipitation Climatology for the Global Land Areas for the Period 1951 to 2000. DWD, Klimastatusbericht KSB 2004, ISSN 1437-7691, ISSN 1616-5063 (Internet), ISBN 3-88148-402-7, 181-190.
  • GPCC Homepage: http://gpcc.dwd.de/

Original Source:

  • The data can be obtained from the GPCC Product Acess Page . The Centre is a German contribution to the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS).

Contact:

  • Physical Sciences Division: Data Management
    NOAA/ESRL/PSD
    325 Broadway
    Boulder, CO 80305-3328
    esrl.psd.data@noaa.gov