RFE2

About

This dataset is called "CPC/Famine Early Warning System Daily Estimates", also known as RFE2, Rainfall Estimates. The data are calculated by merging GTS gauge observations and 3 kinds of satellite estimates. (GPI, SSM/I and ASMU).

Getting Access

Completely open access from ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/fews/fewsdata/africa/rfe2.

File Format

Pixel resolution	751 x 801
Geographical resolution	0.1º x 0.1º
Longitude range of first pixel	20.0ºW - 55.0ºE
Latitude range of first pixel	40.0ºN - 40.0ºN
Data / units:	mm (per day)
No Data Value:	-999

• Each file is a daily total, compressed with gzip. (A simple 7z x using 7-zip from the command-line will unzip it).
• 2004/07/24 and 2007/11/13 are missing.
• Important: the data is ordered in rows starting at the South-most.
• And also, there range is supposed to be <300mm. I found some insane values - (1.2E7, 1.1E8, 2005/04/08 and 2005/08/13). Recommendation from NOAA was to apply the 300mm ceiling.

Example Code

Java Daily Accumulation

Here's Java code to calculate daily precipitation, by summing the CPCs.

  DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(new File(infile))));
  float[] data = new float[691200];

  for (int record=1; record<=8; record++) {
    for (int i=0; i<691200; i++)      // Ignore -9999 (no data) - and 3.0* is for 3-hrly mm/hr
      data[i]+=(3.0*Math.max(0,dis.readFloat()));
  }
  dis.close();
 

Citation

No citation information given - only: "Please refer to this product as the CPC/Famine Early Warning System Daily Estimates". Contact information: Nick Novella, NOAA / NWS / NCEP / Climate Prediction Center, NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, 5830 University Research Court, College Park, MD 20740, (o) 301.683.3458. E-mail: Nicholas.Novella@noaa.gov