A Global Multi-Source Tropical Cyclone Precipitation (MSTCP) Dataset

Abstract

A global tropical cyclone precipitation dataset covering the period from January 1979 to February 2023 is presented. Global precipitation estimates were taken from the newly developed high-resolution Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation, version 2 (MSWEP V2) and TC tracks were obtained from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) dataset. This Global Multi-Source Tropical Cyclone Precipitation (MSTCP) dataset is comprised of two main products and files in the format of tables: the main and profile datasets. The main file provides various TCP statistics per TC track, including mean and maximum precipitation rates over a fixed and symmetrical radius of 500 km. The profile dataset comprises the azimuthally averaged precipitation every 10-km away from the center of each storm (until 500 km). The case study of Hurricane Harvey is used to show that MSWEP estimates agree well with another commonly used satellite product. The main statistics of the dataset are analyzed as well, including the differences in the dataset metrics for each of the six TC basins and for each Saffir-Simpson category for storm intensity.