Mission
The mission of the Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center (GHRC) DAAC is to provide a comprehensive active archive of both data and knowledge augmentation services with a focus on hazardous weather, its governing dynamical and physical processes, and associated applications. Within this broad mandate, GHRC will focus on lightning, tropical cyclones and storm-induced hazards through integrated collections of satellite, airborne, and in-situ data sets.
Organization
The GHRC is a partnership between NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and is located at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) on the UAH campus. The NSSTC houses the NASA MSFC Earth Science Office, the local office of National Weather Service, UAH professors, researchers and students, and other partners.
The GHRC was initially established as the Marshall Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) in 1991 at the beginning of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) program. Today, Dr. Manil Maskey, an Earth science informatics researcher at MSFC, serves as GHRC DAAC Manager. All other GHRC staff are employed by UAH and matrixed from within the Information Technology and Systems Center (ITSC), under direction of Dr. Sara Graves.
Current Data Holdings
Key Data Holdings of the GHRC DAAC are described below. All data are accessible from the GHRC Search Portal.
| Data Collection | Description |
| Lightning Observations |
GHRC hosts a wide variety of lightning datasets. These can be stand-alone datasets or in conjunction with field campaigns. Lightning observations come from multiple platforms. These include: Ground-based Sensors
Airborne-based Sensors
Satellite-based Sensors
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| DISCOVER MEaSUREs |
Distributed Information Services for Climate and Ocean Products and Visualizations for Earth Research (DISCOVER) Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) provides atmospheric and ocean products derived from satellite microwave radiometer measurements and delivered as a package of inter-related geophysical parameters, including:
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Hurricane Science and Field Campaigns |
Airborne and ground-based observations of tropical cyclones and cyclogenesis collected during a series of campaigns from 1998 to the present. These campaigns include:
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GPM Ground Validation Field Campaigns |
Precipitation datasets from ground and airborne instruments supporting physical validation of satellite-based precipitation retrieval algorithms, from targeted observations in different precipitation regimes (2010-2016). These campaigns include:
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| Convective Processes Experiments |
This is a series of three field campaigns that took place between 2017 and 2022. The original Convective Processes Experiment (CPEX - 2017) focused on understanding cloud dynamics, downdrafts, cold pools, and thermodynamics during initiation growth and dissipation. The 2021 follow-on CPEX-Aerosols and Winds served as calibration and validation for the European Space Agency’s Atmospheric Dynamics Mission-Aeolus. It also studied microphysics related to the Saharan Air Layer, African easterly waves and jets, the marine atmospheric boundary layer, and tropical convection. The 2022 CPEX-Cabo Verde will continue to study tropical convection and associated processes affecting tropical North Atlantic dynamics.
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GHRC Cloud Services
Learn about GHRC's Cloud Services on our page at https://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/home/content/ghrc_cloud_services.
GHRC Search Portal
GHRC is in the process of moving its data holdings to the cloud. The GHRC Search Portal offers access to cloud-based datasets as well as resources to help guide data users in discovering, accessing, and utilizing cloud data. The GHRC Search Portal can be found at https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/portal/ghrc/search. For questions, please see GHRC Search Portal Help.
Earthdata CMR
The Earthdata Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance, high-quality, continuously evolving metadata system that catalogs Earth Science data and associated service metadata records. These metadata records are registered, modified, discovered, and accessed through programmatic interfaces leveraging standard protocols and APIs. Use CMR to search and in helping to narrow down the data you need, over the spatial and temporal parameters desired, by platform, provider, or collection ID, and much more. For details check out the CMR API documentation.
