SAFARI 2000 SSM/I GPROF 6.0 PRECIPITATION DATA, 0.5-DEG, 1999-2001

The GPROF 6.0 Pentads data set contains 5-day (pentad) averages of the GPROF 6.0 Gridded Orbits. The GPROF(Goddard Profiling Algorithm) data set contains a suite of 9 products providing instantaneous, gridded values of precipitation totals for each granule of the SSM/I (Special Sensor Microwave/Imager) data over the roughly 14-year period July 1987 through the present. Even though there have been at least two satellites for the entire period, sampling is sufficiently sparse that the data are averaged for pentads, then the pentads are smoothed with a 1-2-3-2-1 time-weighting. The last two pentads are unevenly weighted since the last (or last two) pentads in the average are not yet available. Consequently, the last two pentads must be recomputed when the next pentad becomes available.The data set prepared for SAFARI cover the years 1999, 2000, and 2001.The main refereed citations for the data set are Kummerow et al. (1996)and Olson et al. (1999)