The V07B Near-realtime (NRT) update of IMERG and extension of record to January 1998

During 2024 two important events impacted the processing of the IMERG near-realtime product. On 1 June 2024 the NRT was converted to use the RedHat RHEL 8 operating system.  Equally importantly the system was converted to use python 3. Coupled with these system updates, the IMERG NRT algorithms were updated to V07B. This update had been implemented almost a year earlier for the Final IMERG product (appx. 3 months latency from realtime). This much improved algorithm corrected some issues with V06 and added features some of which are discussed in this paper. In October 2024 IMERG products were extended back to January of 1998. Until V07 IMERG only extended back to May 2000. This restriction was due to IR products used as part of IMERG processing not being available before 2000. This paper will provide information about this early phase processing and provide images that illuminate processing for this period. The paper will also discuss the plans and status of availability of NRT version of the 1998-2000 data for early and late versions of IMERG V07B.