Earth Science

Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory (GPM)

Orbiter · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on February 27, 2014 · Extended Mission · LCC: $1.1B/$1.6B (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For GPM, papers published April 1, 2014 to January 1, 2024. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For GPM, papers published from 2014 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods2,845
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods54,581
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods89
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods146
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods6.8
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods235
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods1,095

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (2,845)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. The Global Precipitation Measurement Mission

    Hou, Arthur Y., 2014, BAMS

    2,270 lifetime citations

  2. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission for Science and Society

    Skofronick-Jackson, Gail, 2017, BAMS

    673 lifetime citations

  3. Daily evaluation of 26 precipitation datasets using Stage-IV gauge-radar data for the CONUS

    Beck, Hylke E., 2019, HESS

    505 lifetime citations

  4. Evaluation of GPM Day-1 IMERG and TMPA Version-7 legacy products over Mainland China at multiple spatiotemporal scales

    Tang, Guoqiang, 2016, JHyd

    475 lifetime citations

  5. Have satellite precipitation products improved over last two decades? A comprehensive comparison of GPM IMERG with nine satellite and reanalysis datasets

    Tang, Guoqiang, 2020, RSEnv

    464 lifetime citations

  6. Ground validation of GPM IMERG and TRMM 3B42V7 rainfall products over southern Tibetan Plateau based on a high-density rain gauge network

    Xu, Ran, 2017, JGRD

    351 lifetime citations

  7. Assessment of GPM-IMERG and Other Precipitation Products against Gauge Data under Different Topographic and Climatic Conditions in Iran: Preliminary Results

    Sharifi, Ehsan, 2016, RemS

    303 lifetime citations

  8. Evaluation of 18 satellite- and model-based soil moisture products using in situ measurements from 826 sensors

    Beck, Hylke E., 2021, HESS

    288 lifetime citations

  9. Review of GPM IMERG performance: A global perspective

    Pradhan, Rajani K., 2022, RSEnv

    270 lifetime citations

  10. A Global High Resolution Mesoscale Convective System Database Using Satellite Derived Cloud Tops, Surface Precipitation, and Tracking

    Feng, Zhe, 2021, JGRD

    267 lifetime citations

  11. Inroads of remote sensing into hydrologic science during the WRR era

    Lettenmaier, Dennis P., 2015, WRR

    262 lifetime citations

  12. Temporal and spatial evaluation of satellite-based rainfall estimates across the complex topographical and climatic gradients of Chile

    Zambrano-Bigiarini, Mauricio, 2017, HESS

    245 lifetime citations

  13. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI): Instrument Overview and Early On-Orbit Performance

    Draper, David W., 2015, IJSTA

    238 lifetime citations

  14. A preliminary assessment of GPM-based multi-satellite precipitation estimates over a monsoon dominated region

    Prakash, Satya, 2018, JHyd

    236 lifetime citations

  15. From TRMM to GPM: How well can heavy rainfall be detected from space?

    Prakash, Satya, 2016, AdWR

    230 lifetime citations

  16. On the performance of satellite precipitation products in riverine flood modeling: A review

    Maggioni, Viviana, 2018, JHyd

    224 lifetime citations

  17. TPHiPr: a long-term (1979─2020) high-accuracy precipitation dataset (1/30°, daily) for the Third Pole region based on high-resolution atmospheric modeling and dense observations

    Jiang, Yaozhi, 2023, ESSD

    224 lifetime citations

  18. Statistical and Hydrological Comparisons between TRMM and GPM Level-3 Products over a Midlatitude Basin: Is Day-1 IMERG a Good Successor for TMPA 3B42V7?

    Tang, Guoqiang, 2016, JHyMe

    212 lifetime citations

  19. Evaluation of the GPM IMERG satellite-based precipitation products and the hydrological utility

    Wang, Zhaoli, 2017, AtmRe

    211 lifetime citations

  20. Comparison of GPM IMERG, TMPA 3B42 and PERSIANN-CDR satellite precipitation products over Malaysia

    Tan, Mou Leong, 2018, AtmRe

    211 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming GPM in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

(((abs:IMERG AND abs:(precipitation OR rainfall OR satellite)) OR =abs:"Global Precipitation Measurement" OR (abs:GPM AND (abs:(precipitation OR rainfall OR satellite OR DPR OR GMI OR IMERG) OR =abs:"Core Observatory" OR =abs:"Microwave Imager") NOT (=abs:"gas-permeable membrane" OR =abs:"Glaciar Perito Moreno" OR =abs:"groundwater potential" OR =abs:"gamma-pareto quantile mapping" OR =abs:"grid-preprocessed mosaicking" OR =abs:"Gauss pseudospectral" OR =abs:"Gaussian plume model")) OR =abs:"GPM Microwave Imager" OR (=abs:"Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar" AND abs:(satellite OR GPM OR spaceborne) NOT abs:(FY-3G OR FY3G)) OR (abs:GMI AND abs:(precipitation OR rainfall OR microwave) NOT (=abs:"Global Modeling Initiative" OR =abs:"giant magnetoimpedance" OR =abs:"giant magneto-impedance" OR =abs:"gradient meteorological instrument" OR (abs:global AND abs:Moran))) OR (abs:DPR AND abs:(precipitation AND (satellite OR spaceborne OR GPM)) NOT =abs:"DPR Korea"))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2014-04 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Added after review (1)

  1. GPM/DPR Precipitation Compared with a 3.5-km-Resolution NICAM Simulation Mission's first published science result: early DPR precipitation observations compared with a global cloud-resolving simulation. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (1)

  1. Assessing the impact of pre-GPM microwave precipitation observations in the Goddard WRF ensemble data assimilation system Written before GPM launched; uses earlier satellites' data to anticipate the mission. Decision 🤖