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CHIRPS Precipitation
Satellite-gauge blended rainfall estimates commonly used for rainfall exposure, drought, and climate-health screening in data-sparse settings.
Dataset summary
- Provider
- Climate Hazards Center, UC Santa Barbara
- Spatial coverage
- Global
- Temporal coverage
- 1981-present
- Spatial resolution
- 0.05° daily
- Temporal resolution
- Daily
- Formats
- NetCDF
- Climate variable tags
- Rainfall
- Observatory relevance
- North Carolina, Amazon Basin, East Africa, Southeast Asia
Use guidance
- Best for
- Rainfall totals and anomalies where station coverage is limited and a long, consistent precipitation record is useful.
- Not best for
- Sub-hourly rainfall intensity, urban drainage design, or applications requiring direct gauge observations.
- Common pitfalls
- Assuming satellite/blended rainfall is ground truth.
- Ignoring local gauge availability and terrain effects.
- Comparing daily and weekly products without harmonizing accumulation windows.
Variables and notes
- Precipitation
Related learning resources
Use these guides to interpret the variable, scale, format, and workflow choices before using this dataset in a climate-health analysis.