This page describes and gives options for manipulating the NASA GPCP V1B dataset. We start with the options for manipulating, because once you are comfortable with the system, they are the most useful.


Dataset Options

NASA GPCP V1B options Help Expert Mode
display data as colors display data as contours display data as line Data Selection Data FilesTables
Help/Terse
switches back and forth between this relatively descriptive page that contains extended explanations, and the page that just has the information.
Expert Mode
switches into a mode that lets you access several datasets at the same time, and enter data-manipulating commands directly as text rather than clicking on a series of pages.

When in Expert Mode there is a list of active datasets at the top of the page, followed by a text window containing the command equivalent of the current page. These commands can be edited or extended.

Views
(the icons that show different views) go to an interactive data viewer that let you view the data with a variety of plot types (including colors and contours), zoom in and out, and select different slices and different variables. You can also save the view in a variety of formats, including as a clickable link in your own html document, as well as extract the data in the view as a table or datafile.
Data Selection
lets you pick out a subset of the full dataset. You should try the interactive data viewer first.
Data Files
lets you download the dataset in your choice of format.
Tables
lets you view the data as a table. A number of formatting options are available.
Note that there will be many more options once you have picked a particular variable, because the server is currently more adept at manipulating single variables than it is at manipulating datasets (e.g. collections of variables).

Dataset Description

We start with a quick reminder of where you are in the collection of datasets.

SOURCESNASAGPCPV1B*

As you go from left to right, the datasets listed get more and more specific, ending with the current dataset, NASA GPCP V1B. Datasets with documentation are marked (*): the * links to the documentation directly.

NASA GPCP V1B

V1B from NASA GPCP: Combined satellite-gauge precipitation estimates and error estimates from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project.

Documents

give additional information about the current dataset.
outline
shows all the different parts of this dataset (the parts are datasets and variables, see below).
dataset documentation

Datasets and variables

Variables (also called data or dependent variables) are sets of numbers, along with the grids (independent variables) that place those numbers in space and time, and the additional information (such as units) that render the data meaningful. Datasets are collections of variables and datasets. This will become clearer once you look at the outline.

AGPI NASA GPCP V1B AGPI[prcp err ]
gauge NASA GPCP V1B gauge[err nsamp prcp ]
GPI NASA GPCP V1B GPI[prcp nsamp ]
multi-satellite NASA GPCP V1B multi-satellite[prcp err ]
satellite-gauge NASA GPCP V1B satellite-gauge[prcp err ]
SSMI_combined NASA GPCP V1B SSMI_combined[err nsamp src prcp ]
SSMI_emission NASA GPCP V1B SSMI_emission[prcp nsamp ]
SSMI_scattering NASA GPCP V1B SSMI_scattering[prcp nsamp ]

Grids

Grids are the independent variables contained in this dataset.

Time grid: /T (months since 1960-01-01) ordered (Jul 1987) to (Sep 1998) by 1.0 N= 135 pts :grid
Longitude grid: /X (degree_east) periodic (1.25E) to (1.25W) by 2.5 N= 144 pts :grid
Latitude grid: /Y (degree_north) ordered (88.75N) to (88.75S) by 2.5 N= 72 pts :grid

Other Info

iridl:hasSemantics
iriref:Huffman_GL

References

Huffman, G. J., R.F. Adler, P.A. Arkin, A. Chang, R. Ferraro, A. Gruber, J. Janowiak, R.J. Joyce, A. McNab, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, and P. Xie, 1997: The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Combined Precipitation Data Set. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 5-20.