Global Hydrology Resource Center(GHRC) is one of NASA's Earth Science Data Centers and is a collaboration between MSFC and University of Alabama in Huntsville.

GPM Ground Validation Meteorological Tower Environment Canada GCPEx

Table of Contents

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

Introduction

The GPM Ground Validation Meteorological Tower Environment Canada GCPEx data set includes temperature, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation data collected by a suite of meteorological instruments attached to a 10 meter meteorological tower. Browse images of the data are also available and include plots of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, and solar flux over time by date. The data was collected in Ontario, Canada for the GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx).

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, a meteorological tower was located at each of the five ground sites in Ontario, Canada. The site names and locations are:

Bob Morton: Lat: 44°10'35.29"N; Lon: 79°55'9.13"W
Steamshow: Lat: 44°10'50.27"N; Lon: 79°43'4.63"W
SkyDive: Lat: 44°14'16.30"N; Lon: 79°38'25.02"W
CARE: Lat: 44°13'59.45"N; Lon: 79°46'50.11"W
Huronia: Lat: 44°41'10.25"N; Lon: 79°55'40.60"W

The meteorological tower located at the Bob Morton site did not have a complete instrument kit and only recorded temperature, relative humidity, and pressure. Placeholders of zero or NAN were used in the data files so that Bob Morton's data would conform to the file format of the other four sites.

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 Automated Transportable Meteorological Observation Station (ATMOS), manufactured by Zephyr North, is a transportable 10 meter meteorological tower. The tower includes the following meteorological instruments:

Temperature and Relative Humidity Probes
Digital Barometer
Silicon Pyranometer
Wind Monitor
Data Logger
Wired Thermocouples

More information on the make and model of the instruments can be found in the GCPEX Met Tower Instruments document.

Investigators

David Hudak
Research Scientist, Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section
Environment Canada
King City, Ontario

File Naming Convention

The GPM Ground Validation Meteorological Tower Environment Canada GCPEx data and browse files are named with the following convention:

gcpex_met_[YYYYMMDD]_EC_[site].txt
gcpex_met_[YYYYMMDD]_EC_[site].png

where,

gcpex = GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment
met = meteorological tower
YYYYMMDD = the year, month and day of the data
EC = Environment Canada
site = site name
txt = ASCII text file
png = a graphics file format

The data files consist of ASCII text files while the browse files are .png graphics files.

Data Format

The GPM Ground Validation Meteorological Tower Environment Canada GCPEx data set consists of ASCII text files. More information on the format of the data can be found in the Data Format document. Please use the Data System Acquisition time column A (instead of B) in combination with the date stamp used in the data file name. Also, please note that 2 meter wind directions are unreliable and should not be used. Finally, please note that temperature and pressure were corrected after the field campaign. These values are included in the files and are listed under columns AA and BB.

The GPM Ground Validation Meteorological Tower Environment Canada GCPEx browse files are .png graphics files.

Citation

Our data sets are provided through the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). GHRC DAAC is one of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) data centers that are part of the ESDIS project. ESDIS data are not copyrighted; however, in the event that you publish our data or results derived by using our data, we request that you include an acknowledgment within the text of the article and a citation on your reference list. Examples for general acknowledgments, data set citation in a reference listing, and crediting online web images and information can be found at: http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/uso/citation.html

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: ghrcdaac@itsc.uah.edu
Web: http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/