# # This is the README file for the Rainfall Estimator (RFE) for data over Africa. # OVERVIEW: - The RFE algorithm is based on the PingPing Xie method currently being employed as an operational product at the NOAA/Climate Prediction Center in association with USAID/FEWS-NET. Maps of daily, dekadal, and monthly rainfall estimates, as well as documentation on the RFE algorithm methodology may be found here: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/fews/rfe.shtml Caveats with Data: Updated April, 2010 - There are some days in 2005 where daily RFE estimates exceed the 300mm threshold for a limited number of pixels. Please include any conditional statements to remove and/or substitute these pixels upon reading the binary data. 1. filename all_products.bin.YYYYMMDD YYYY == 4 digit year MM == month DD == date 2. description of the data content: rain == daily precipitation analysis by merging GTS gauge observations and 3 kinds of satellite estimates. (GPI,SSM/I and AMSU) Units are in millimeters (mm) Data files are written in binary data format and consist of one record (one array) of floating point rainfall estimates in mm (after unzipping). Each array equals 751*801 elements, corresponding to 751 pixels in the x direction, and 801 pixels in the y direction. After reshaping to a 0.1 degree grid, this will yield a spatial domain spanning -40S to 40N in latitude, and -20W to 55E in longitude encompassing the Africa continent. Missing data is denoted as -999.0. 3. example program c program : example.f c objective : to read the daily estimates c dimension rain(751,801) c c 1. to open the data file c open (unit=10,file='all_products.bin.20000601', # access='direct',status='readonly',recl=751*801) c c 2. to read the data c read (10,rec=1) rain c stop end