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DOCUMENTATION

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GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx

Table of Contents

Introduction
Citation
Campaign
Instrument Description
Investigators
File Naming Convention
Data Format
References
Contact Information

Introduction

The GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx data set includes measurements of brightness temperatures, radar reflectivity, and cloud altitude. The data was collected using ADMIRARI, Micro Rain Radar (MRR), and cloud lidar during the period of January 14, 2012 to February 29, 2012 for the GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) at the Centre for Atmospheric Research Experiments in Ontario, Canada. The information is available in .asc ASCII space delimited table files.

Citation

The following example shows how to cite the use of this data set in a publication. For more information, please see our Citing GHRC DAAC and Data page.

Saavedra, P. and A. Battaglia. GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx [indicate subset used]. Data set available online [http://ghrc.nssstc.nasa.gov] from the NASA EOSDIS Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A. doi: 10.5067/GPMGV/GCPEX/ADMIRARI/DATA201

Campaign

The GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) occurred in Ontario, Canada during the winter season of 2011-2012. GCPEx addressed shortcomings in the GPM snowfall retrieval algorithm by collecting microphysical properties, associated remote sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of precipitating snow. These data sets were collected to aid in the achievement of the over arching goal of GCPEx which is to characterize the ability of multi-frequency active and passive microwave sensors to detect and estimate falling snow.

During GCPEX, the ADMIRARI was located at the CARE facility in Ontario, Canada. The coordinates of the CARE site are: Lat: 44°13'59.45"N, Lon: 79°46'50.11"W.

Data was collected from Jan 14, 2012 through Feb 29, 2012. Further details on GCPEx are available at http://gpm.nsstc.nasa.gov/gcpex. Information on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is available at http://pmm.nasa.gov/GPM.

Instrument Description

The ADMIRARI (ADvanced MIcrowave RAdiometer for Rain Identification), created by Radiometer Physics GmbH, is a passive microwave radiometer designed to measure water vapor, cloud and liquid rain water with a temporal resolution of 1 second and a spatial resolution of 5°. The ADMIRARI measures brightness temperatures at 10.7, 21.0 and 36.5 GHz frequencies and at two polarized planes (H and V). The radiometer is equipped with two auxiliary active instruments: a Micro Rain Radar (MRR) at 24.1 GHz frequency for rain structure observation and a cloud lidar at 920 nm wavelength for cloud base estimation. The radiometer typically provides rain/cloud liquid water path (LWP) and integrated water vapor (IWV), including total LWP and IWV for low water content cases. Additional information about the ADMIRARI is available at http://www2.meteo.uni-bonn.de/admirari/.

Investigators

Pablo Saavedra
University of Bonn, Meteorological Institute
Auf dem Huegel 20
53121 Bonn
Germany

Alessandro Battaglia
University of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy
University Road LE17RH
Leicester, UK

File Naming Convention

The GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx data set consists of .asc ASCII space delimited table files. The files are named with the following convention:

gcpex_YYYYMMDD_admirari_lev0#.asc

where,

gcpex = GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment
YYYYMMDD = the year, month, and day of the data
admirari = Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Rain Identification
lev0# = NASA processing level, where # is 1 or 2 for the first and second processing levels, respectively; information about NASA processing levels may be found at http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/earth-science-data/data-processing-levels-for-eosdis-data-products/
asc = ASCII space delimited table file

The files contain measurements of brightness temperature, radar reflectivity, and cloud altitude during the study period.

Data Format

The GPM Ground Validation Advanced Microwave Radiometer Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) GCPEx data set is available in .asc ASCII space delimited table files.

References

Saavedra P., Battaglia A. and C. Simmer, "Partitioning of cloud water and rain water content by ground-based observations with the Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) in synergy with a micro rain radar", Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmosphere, 2011, 117, D05203, doi: 10.1029/2011JD016382

Contact Information

To order these data or for further information, please contact:

Global Hydrology Resource Center
User Services
320 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35805
Phone: 256-961-7932
E-mail: support-ghrc@earthdata.nasa.gov
Web: http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/

 

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