This paper presents a climatological study of global precipitation space-time statistics based on a rain-rate estimation algorithm derived for the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) aboard the NOAA-15, -16, and -17 satellites, and the NASA Aqua satellite with the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB). The algorithm uses brightness temperatures in 17 channels, principally in the 54-GHz oxygen band and the 183-GHz water vapor band, and produces global rain maps at 15-km resolution that are generally insensitive to surface variations. This algorithm was trained on all-season NEXRAD data over the eastern U.S. and has shown promising agreement with it. This algorithm has also produced morphologically plausible global rain maps and has demonstrated the ability to map snowstorms over polar ice. The current fleet of four AMSU satellites observes each point on the globe approximately eight times a day. Initial global characterizations of annual precipitation averages and statistics are presented.