OceanRAIN published in Nature's Scientific Data

3 July 2018

Photo: UHH/MI/Klepp

The OceanRAIN dataset of our colleague Dr. Christian Klepp, for which global ocean water cycle data were measured for seven years, has now been published in Nature's Scientific Data.  Thanks to the rapidly growing dataset of already more than 6.8 million measurements, recorded by 8 ships, a clear picture is now emerging of the evaporation and precipitation along the ship tracks. The difference between these two parameters results in the freshwater flux – an essential parameter for climate models. The data set allows for the first time a detailed calibration and validation of state of the art satellite data and their products using OceanRAIN as the surface reference. OceanRAIN is therefore of considerable international interest for the long-term verification and improvement of the algorithms and products of the new NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite climatology IMERG. OceanRAIN also significantly improves our physical knowledge of the global water cycle. Researchers can now access the data online via the ICDC (Integrated Climate Data Center) and WDCC (World Data Center for Climate).