Earth Science

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)

Orbiter · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on November 27, 1997 · Completed · LCC: $1.0B/$2.4B (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 TRMM, papers published January 1, 1998 to May 1, 2017. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For TRMM, papers published from 1998 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. Methods3,024
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods130,321
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. Methods146
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. Methods250
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. Methods5.0
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. Methods926
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. Methods1,049

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 (3,024)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. The TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA): Quasi-Global, Multiyear, Combined-Sensor Precipitation Estimates at Fine Scales

    Huffman, George J., 2007, JHyMe

    5,536 lifetime citations

  2. Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)

    van der Werf, G. R., 2010, ACP

    2,110 lifetime citations

  3. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Sensor Package

    Kummerow, Christian, 1998, JAtOT

    1,672 lifetime citations

  4. MSWEP V2 Global 3-Hourly 0.1° Precipitation: Methodology and Quantitative Assessment

    Beck, Hylke E., 2019, BAMS

    1,256 lifetime citations

  5. Analysis of daily, monthly, and annual burned area using the fourth-generation global fire emissions database (GFED4)

    Giglio, Louis, 2013, JGRG

    1,067 lifetime citations

  6. Suppression of Rain and Snow by Urban and Industrial Air Pollution

    Rosenfeld, Daniel, 2000, Sci

    967 lifetime citations

  7. Evaluation of PERSIANN System Satellite-Based Estimates of Tropical Rainfall.

    Sorooshian, Soroosh, 2000, BAMS

    938 lifetime citations

  8. The Status of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) after Two Years in Orbit

    Kummerow, C., 2000, JApMe

    844 lifetime citations

  9. Multisensor historical climatology of satellite-derived global land surface moisture

    Owe, Manfred, 2008, JGRF

    682 lifetime citations

  10. Rain-Profiling Algorithm for the TRMM Precipitation Radar.

    Iguchi, Toshio, 2000, JApMe

    681 lifetime citations

  11. Global Precipitation Map Using Satellite-Borne Microwave Radiometers by the GSMaP Project: Production and Validation

    Kubota, Takuji, 2007, ITGRS

    658 lifetime citations

  12. Trend-preserving blending of passive and active microwave soil moisture retrievals

    Liu, Y. Y., 2012, RSEnv

    587 lifetime citations

  13. TRMM observed first direct evidence of smoke from forest fires inhibiting rainfall

    Rosenfeld, Daniel, 1999, GeoRL

    578 lifetime citations

  14. The Diurnal Cycle of Rainfall and Convective Intensity according to Three Years of TRMM Measurements.

    Nesbitt, Stephen W., 2003, JCli

    578 lifetime citations

  15. The Evolution of the Goddard Profiling Algorithm (GPROF) for Rainfall Estimation from Passive Microwave Sensors.

    Kummerow, Christian, 2001, JApMe

    561 lifetime citations

  16. Monitoring agricultural drought for arid and humid regions using multi-sensor remote sensing data

    Rhee, Jinyoung, 2010, RSEnv

    509 lifetime citations

  17. Topography, relief, and TRMM-derived rainfall variations along the Himalaya

    Bookhagen, Bodo, 2006, GeoRL

    498 lifetime citations

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. Assessing variability and long-term trends in burned area by merging multiple satellite fire products

    Giglio, L., 2010, BGeo

    463 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

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

(((abs:"TRMM" AND abs:"satellite") OR =abs:"Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission")) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[1998-01 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")

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