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GPCC Global Precipitation Climatology Centre

Brief Description:

• GPCC Global Precipitation Climatology Centre monthly precipitation dataset from 1901-present is calculated from global station data. More Details...

Note: V2018 (1891-2016) analysis has been added.

Temporal Coverage: Monthly values 1891/01 through 2016 (full V2018). Monthly values 1901/01 through 2013 (full V7). Monthly values 2007/01 through near present (monitoring). Monthly values 2014/01 through near present (first guess). Spatial Coverage: 0.5 degree latitude x 0.5 degree longitude global grid (720x180) 1.0 degree latitude x 1.0 degree longitude global grid (360x180) 2.5 degree latitude x 2.5 degree longitude global grid (144x72) 90.0N - 90.0S, 0.0E - 360.0E

Levels:

• N/A

Update Schedule:

• Monthly

Download/Plot Data: (Download Issues)

Variable	units	Abbreviation	Statistic	Plot/Subset Data	Download netCDF File
Precipitation (combined with monitoring)	mm	precip	Full V7 1.0x1.0 to 2010 and V6 monitoring from 2014		precip.comb.v7to2013-v6monitorafter.total.nc
Precipitation (combined with monitoring)	mm	precip	Full V2018 1.0x1.0 to 2016 and V6 monitoring from 2017		precip.comb.v2018to2016-v6monitorafter.total.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V2018 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.total.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	LTM Total Full V2018 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.ltm.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	NOBS (Number of observations) Total Full V2018 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.nobs.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V2018 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.total.1x1.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Long Term Mean (LTM) Total Full V2018 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.ltm.1x1.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	NOBS (Number of observations) Total Full V2018 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.nobs.1x1.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V2018 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.total.2.5x.25.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Long Term Mean (LTM) Total Full V2018 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.ltm.2.5x.25.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Number of Observations (NOBS) Full V2018 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.nobs.2.5x2.5.v2018.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V7 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.total.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	LTM Total Full V7 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.ltm.v7.1981-2010.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	NOBS (Number of observations) Total Full V7 (0.5x0.5)		precip.mon.nobs.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V7 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.total.1x1.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Long Term Mean (LTM) Total Full V7 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.1981-2010.ltm.1x1.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	NOBS (Number of observations) Total Full V7 (1.0x1.0)		precip.mon.nobs.1x1.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Total Full V7 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.total.2.5x.25.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Long Term Mean (LTM) Total Full V7 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.1981-2010.ltm.2.5x.25.v7.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	Number of Observations (NOBS) Full V7 (2.5x2.5)		precip.mon.nobs.2.5x2.5.v7.nc
Precipitation (V6)	mm	precip	Monitoring (1.0x1.0)		precip.monitor.mon.total.1x1.v6.nc
Precipitation	mm	precip	First Guess (1.0x1.0)		precip.first.mon.total.1x1.nc

Usage Restrictions:

• All users are requested to refer to the GPCC website.

Detailed Description:

• Four datasets are provided here. First is the monitoring product for the period 2007 to present, based on quality-controlled data from 7,000 stations. The second and third are the is the Full Data Product (V2018 and V7)for the period 1901 to 2016 and 1901 to 2013, based on quality-controlled data from from 67,200 stations world-wide that feature record durations of 10 years or longer. This product contains the monthly totals on a regular grid with a spatial resolution of 0.5° x 0.5°, 1.0° x 1.0°, and 2.5° x 2.5° latitude by longitude. Precipitation anomalies at the stations are interpolated and then superimposed on the GPCC Climatology V2011 in the corresponding resolution.
  The third is the first guess (1x1) which is most up-to-date but which has limited analyzed stations. We start this is 2012.
• 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:

GPCC recommends the following:
• GPCC Full Data Reanalysis (GPCC_FD) with high accuracy, for, e.g., verification of models, or for analysis of historic global precipitation, or for research concerning the global water cycle, e.g., trend and teleconnection analyses.
• GPCC Monitoring Product (GPCC_MP) with high availability and reasonable timeliness, for applications like calibration of satellite data, or early annual reporting.
• GPCC First Guess Product (GPCC_FG) with high timeliness, to be applied for, e.g., drought monitoring.
• 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/gpcc/full_v2018/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /Datasets/gpcc/full_v7/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /Datasets/gpcc/monitor/precip.monitor.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /Datasets/gpcc/first_guess/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /Datasets/gpcc/combined/precip.comb.v7to2014-v6monitorafter.total.nc

OPeNDAP File Names:

• /thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcc/full_v2018/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcc/full_v7/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcc/monitor/precip.monitor.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcc/first_guess/precip.mon.stat.resolution.nc
• /thredds/dodsC/Datasets/gpcc/combined/precip.comb.v7to2013-v6monitorafter.total.nc

Dataset Format and Size:

• All are PSL standard NetCDF
• 390G file, 0.5x0.5 V2018 full data 1901-2016
• 121M file, 1.0x1.0 V2018 full data 1901-2016.
• 63M file 2.5x2.5 V2018 full data 1901-2016
• 333G file, 0.5x0.5 V7 full data 1901-2013
• 107M file, 1.0x1.0 V7 full data 1901-2013.
• 56M file 2.5x2.5 V7 full data 1901-2013
• 52M file, 0.5x0.5 V6 full data nobs 1901-2013
• 1.7G file, 1.0x1.0 V6 full data nobs 1901-2013.
• 28M file 2.5x2.5 V6 full data nobs 1901-2013
• 1 file, 0.5x0.5 LTM V7 total of precipitation (1981-2010).
• 1 file, 1x1 LTM V7 total of precipitation (1981-2010).
• 1 file, 2.5x2.5 LTM V7 total of precipitation (1981-2010).
• 1 file, 1.0x1.0 monitoring product 2007-present
• 1 file, 2.5x2.5 monitoring product 2007-present
• 1 file, 1x1 combined full/monitoring product 1901-present. full V7 until Jan 2013; V4 monitoring after.
• 1 file, 1.0x1.0 First Guess 2012-present

Missing Data:

• Missing data is flagged with a value of -9.96921e+36f.

Citation:

• For 0.5° grid resolution: Schneider, Udo; Becker, Andreas; Finger, Peter; Meyer-Christoffer, Anja; Rudolf, Bruno; Ziese, Markus (2011): GPCC Full Data Reanalysis Version 6.0 at 0.5°: Monthly Land-Surface Precipitation from Rain-Gauges built on GTS-based and Historic Data. DOI: 10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V7_050
• For 1.0° grid resolution: Schneider, Udo; Becker, Andreas; Finger, Peter; Meyer-Christoffer, Anja; Rudolf, Bruno; Ziese, Markus (2011): GPCC Full Data Reanalysis Version 6.0 at 1.0°: Monthly Land-Surface Precipitation from Rain-Gauges built on GTS-based and Historic Data. DOI: 10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V7_100
• For 2.5° grid resolution: Schneider, Udo; Becker, Andreas; Finger, Peter; Meyer-Christoffer, Anja; Rudolf, Bruno; Ziese, Markus (2011): GPCC Full Data Reanalysis Version 6.0 at 2.5°: Monthly Land-Surface Precipitation from Rain-Gauges built on GTS-based and Historic Data. DOI: 10.5676/DWD_GPCC/FD_M_V7_250
• Also, please cite ALL references
• Please note: If you acquire GPCC Precipitation data products from PSL, 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 PSL, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at / in any documents or publications using these data. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of the relevant publications. This will help PSL to justify keeping the GPCC Precipitation data set freely available online in the future. Thank you!

References:

• Schneider et al (2017): Evaluating the Hydrological Cycle over Land Using the Newly-Corrected Precipitation Climatology from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC). Atmosphere 8(3), 52; doi:10.3390/atmos8030052
• Schneider et al (2017): The new portfolio of global precipitation data products of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre suitable to assess and quantify the global water cycle and resources. Proc. IAHS, 374, 29-34, doi:10.5194/piahs-374-29-2016, 2016.
• Becker, A., et al (2013): A description of the global land-surface precipitation data products of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre with sample applications including centennial (trend) analysis from 1901-present. Earth System Science Data, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/essd-5-71-2013.
• Schneider, U. et al (2013): GPCC's new land surface precipitation climatology based on quality-controlled in situ data and its role in quantifying the global water cycle. Theoretical and Applied Climatology http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00704-013-0860-x.
• 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. Truth 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 Access 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 Laboratory: Data Management
  NOAA/ESRL/PSL
  325 Broadway
  Boulder, CO 80305-3328
  psl.data@noaa.gov