The Tracked IMERG Mesoscale Precipitation Systems (TIMPS) is a dataset of precipitation systems tracked in the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) precipitation product. To generate TIMPS, the IMERG final (research-level) precipitation is used along with the Forward in Time (FiT) tracking algorithm (Skok et al. 2009, 2010, 2013). Tracking parameters are optimized to isolate mesoscale features in the precipitation fields. Version 1 of the dataset is available for the global tropics (30S-30N) and for 2015-2019. More information and the data can be found below.
Documentation
Our most recent research articles on the dataset are a number of presentations:
- Rajagopal, Russell, and Zipser (2021): Mesoscale Convective Systems Over Tropical Oceans: The Spatiotemporal Distribution of Size, Duration and Rain Volume using IMERG. 34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology.
- Russell, Rajagopal, Veals, and Zipser (2021): The Upscale Growth of Tropical Oceanic Mesoscale Convective Systems. 34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology.
We are currently working to publish this in a number of articles in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
The technical documentation is available at the following link: https://home.chpc.utah.edu/~u0816744/TIMPS/TIMPS_Documentation_v1-1_20210717.pdf.
Data
The data is currently available via http server.
Alternatively, data can be downloaded using a python script (on linux/unix). LFTP must be installed on the system for this to work.
Updates
7/17/2021: Version 1.1 implemented. Variable names changed and some new variables added to TIMPS files. Structure of track files modified. TIMPS and tracking files added for 2014 and 2020.