What Is The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)?

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) was established in 1986 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO/ICSU) World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) to provide global fields of area and time-averaged precipitation for the ten-year period 1986-1995. Since then the GPCP has been extended to the year 2000 for a total of fifteen years. The GPCP obtains global estimates of monthly precipitation totals averaged over 2.5° latitude by 2.5° longitude areas through the improved utilization of available rain-gauge observations and the innovative use of existing satellite infrared and microwave data. Over the ocean, the project relies on remote observations provided by participating operational satellites.