STREAM‐Sat: A novel near‐realtime quasi‐global satellite‐only ensemble precipitation dataset

In this study, we attempt to resolve these two challenges and propose the first quasi‐global (covering all continental land masses within 50°N‐50°S) satellite‐only ensemble precipitation dataset (STREAM‐Sat), derived entirely from NASA's Integrated Multi‐SatellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) and GPM's radar‐radiometer combined precipitation product (2B‐CMB). No ground‐based measurements are used to generate STREAM‐Sat, and it is suitable for near‐realtime use without extending the 4‐hr latency and 0.1°, 30‐min spatiotemporal resolution of IMERG Early.

We compare STREAM‐Sat against several precipitation datasets, including global satellite‐based, rain gage‐based, atmospheric reanalysis, and merged products. While our proposed approach faces some limitations and is not universally superior to the comparison datasets in all respects, it does hold relative advantages due to its unique combination of accuracy, resolution, rainfall spatiotemporal structure, latency, and utility in hydrologic and hazard applications.