TC PRIMED Products

What are the data products?

In TC PRIMED, low-Earth orbiting satellite overpasses of tropical cyclones serve as the anchor dataset. At the overpass time, the following observations and ancillary information are available.

For specific information about the source for each data product, see the dataset documentation Tropical Cyclone Precipitation, Infrared, Microwave, and Environmental Dataset (TC PRIMED) Dataset Documentation for Version v01r00 and the data sources page.

Can I access products?

TC PRIMED currently available through the NOAA Open Data Dissemination. See information in the Registry of Open Data on AWS for TC PRIMED and the associated Amazon Web Services s3 bucket at https://noaa-nesdis-tcprimed-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html.

In the TC PRIMED Amazon Web Services s3 bucket, the data directory structure is as follows

<TC PRIMED AWS URL>/<TC PRIMED Version>/<TC PRIMED Version Type>/<season>/<basin>/<annual number>/

where
  • <TC PRIMED AWS URL> is the following URL https://noaa-nesdis-tcprimed-pds.s3.amazonaws.com
  • <TC PRIMED Version> is the version number, currently v01r00
  • <TC PRIMED Type> is the final or preliminary type
  • <season> is the four digit season.
    • This is calendar year for the Northern Hemisphere.
    • For the Southern Hemisphere, the year begins July 1, with calendar year plus one.
  • <basin> is the ocean basin.
    • AL – North Atlantic basin, north of the Equator;
    • SL – South Atlantic basin, south of the Equator;
    • EP – North East Pacific basin, eastward of 140 degrees west longitude;
    • CP – North Central Pacific basin, between the dateline and 140 degrees west longitude;
    • WP – North West Pacific basin, westward of the dateline;
    • IO – North Indian Ocean basin, north of the Equator between 40 and 100 degrees east longitude;
    • SH – South Pacific Ocean basin and South Indian Ocean basin.
  • <annual number> is the annual cyclone number from 01 to 49.

Here are a few specific sample files near the time of the lifetime maximum intensity of Hurricane Florence (2018).

How do I interact with TC PRIMED files?

To help you learn how to interact with TC PRIMED files, the TC PRIMED development team has created a Learning Journey in partnership with the NOAA Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI). Multiple Jupyter notebooks create a Learning Journey. Each notebook in the journey is independent of the other notebooks, which allows users to pick their entry point or notebooks of interest. The TC PRIMED Learning Journey contains seven notebooks split into five chapters.

Launch all notebooks in the Learning Journey using Jupyter lab via Binder via the badge below.
Binder

If you go through the learning journey material using Binder or Google Colab, your changes will not be saved unless you download the notebooks before exiting your browser tab.

Is TC PRIMED ready for my AI/ML application?

What is AI-ready data?

The NOAA Center for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) is exploring the creation of an AI-ready data standard to assist in facilitating the use of NOAA data in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. NCAI is working with stakeholders to identify requirements for an AI-ready dataset standard using guidelines provided by the Earth Science Information Partners Data Readiness Cluster. The cluster has produced a Checklist to Examine AI-readiness for Open Environmental Datasets and an AI-ready assessment matrix. These tools and guidelines are designed to help data providers and data users determine if the dataset is ready and applicable to their AI applications.

The questions and answers below provide information on how TC PRIMED addresses relevant AI-ready elements.

What is the data access for TC PRIMED?

TC PRIMED is in the machine-readable Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) file format. While this is the only file format available, NetCDF is easily converted to other file formats.

Once the data is available through NCEI, TC PRIMED users can use the NCEI search functionality to find subsets of the dataset. Users can interact with the data through the application programming interface via Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) Data Server (TDS). Both options allow users to avoid downloading the entire dataset.

Are there restrictions or restricted data in TC PRIMED?

No, there are no restrictions or restricted data in TC PRIMED.

Does TC PRIMED have standardized metadata?

Yes, TC PRIMED uses several machine-readable standards for metadata and naming conventions. These conventions, standard naming, and keywords provide information on the spatial and temporal extent, names for variables, standardized variable attributes, and instruments & platforms.

For an example of these metadata, see the NetCDF Markup Language 2.2 XML from the sample environmental file and an example from the sample GPM GMI files: AL062018 ERA5 Metadata (XML) and AL062018 GMP GMI Metadata (XML).

Does TC PRIMED have geospatial and temporal bound information?

TC PRIMED is a global dataset where subsets are provided for single tropical cyclones. For each file type, we provide geospatial and temporal bound information using standardized global and group-level attributes.

Where is TC PRIMED's data provenance information?

Each group provides provenance information through the source attribute. For detailed provenance information, see the Data Source.

Does TC PRIMED have quality control monitoring and uncertainty quantification?

Yes, the TC PRIMED team has taken steps to quality control the data sources while creating the dataset. For uncertainty quantification, we do not provide new uncertainty quantification information beyond what is available from our upstream data providers.

Is TC PRIMED data processed/derived/regridded?

Yes. Different parts of the dataset include different processing, derivation, and regridding steps and procedures. See the Data Source page for information.

Is TC PRIMED being used in other AI applications?

Yes. See the Publications page for publications using TC PRIMED. NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research and CIRA/CSU projects are actively using TC PRIMED in AI applications. More details forethcoming.

Does TC PRIMED have targets/labels?

TC PRIMED is a general dataset that is suitable for multiple AI/ML applications. As a result, TC PRIMED does not contain one set of targets/labels. However, it is common to use the Naval Research Laboratory Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) system best-track database information from NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center, NOAA/NWS Central Pacifc Hurricane Center, and DOD Joint Typhoon Warning Center that is in the storm metadata group as targets/labels for tropical cyclone applications. But, other projects may end up using infrared or microwave brightness temperatures as the targets/labels.

If you have specific questions, contact the TC PRIMED development team via .