conversion factor for MSWEP 3 hourly data fixed

[lee1043]

MSWEP 3 hourly data has mm/3hr units according to their technical document, so I am suggesting revising conversion factor to convert [mm/3hr] to [kg m-2 s-1]

“The precipitation estimates are stored in the precipitation netCDF field (dimensions 1800×3600) in mm/3-hour, mm/day, and mm/month units for the 3-hourly, daily, and monthly data, respectively.”

1 kg m-2 s-1 = 86400 mm / day = 86400 mm / 24 hr = 86400 mm / (8 x 3) hr = (86400 / 8) mm / 3 hr = 10800 mm / 3 hr

[lee1043]

@gleckler1, Is this look like a right thing to do?

[taylor13]

I agree. You want to take the reported values (in mm/3hr) and divide by 10800 to get values expressed in units of kg m-2 s-1. I must say it's hard to get an intuitive feel for how much rain accumulates if the rate is, say, 10^-5 kg m-2 s-1 for 24 hours. According to the conversion it is not quite a cm ( 8.64 mm ).