Climate Hazards Center

The UCSB Climate Hazards Center is excited to announce the publication of the peer-reviewed article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-026-07096-4) describing CHIRPS Version 3 in Nature Scientific Data Journal.

The Climate Hazards Center Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS3) data was released in 2025. Building on the widely used CHIRPS2 dataset, CHIRPS3 introduces several major improvements:

📌 CHIRPS3 Dataset Highlights:
1. Expanded global coverage from 50°S–50°N to 60°S–60°N
2. A new variance-preserving satellite precipitation algorithm (CHIRP3) that better captures rainfall variability.
3. A new gauge-undercatch corrected climatology (CHPclim-v2)
4. The integration of thousands of additional gauge-undercatch corrected rain gauge observations from new station networks and data sources

After more than a year of operations, CHIRPS3 has now been fully integrated into CHC monitoring and forecasting activities, including CHC Early Estimates and CHIRPS-GEFS products.

The transition to CHIRPS3 is well underway. CHIRPS2 will continue to be available through December 31, 2026, after which operational updates will cease.

The CHC team is immensely grateful to the many partners around the world who share station observations and make CHIRPS possible. Their contributions continue to improve the quality and reach of this globally important climate dataset.

This work is supported by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).

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The Climate Hazards Center (CHC) Director and Climate Scientist, Dr Chris Funk, was featured in the latest issue of the Institute of Technology magazine 2026/1.

In an interview with KIT, Dr. Chris Funk emphasizes the importance of dialogue in advancing scientific solutions, highlighting ongoing collaboration between the CHC, IMKTRO - Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, KIT and the Kenya Meteorological Department.

In 2024, Dr. Funk received the prestigious International Excellence Award of KIT and the Fellowship of the SCHROFF Foundation, recognizing the global impact of his outstanding interdisciplinary research on climate variability, extreme weather, and food security.

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