GPM Ground Validation UND Citation Navigation Data MC3E

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Cessna Citation II Research aircraft owned and operated by the University of North Dakota (UND) participated in the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) supplying navigation data and also carrying cloud microphysics instruments. This navigation dataset consists of final processed files (.txt) from UND containing records with flight time (UT seconds from midnight) and aircraft latitude, longitude and altitude. The dataset also contains the IWG1 data collected during the mission. Data was collected from 01 April 2011 through 02 June 2011.

Note: The Flight Summaries and Flight Track Imagery dataset which includes sonde maps, radar animation, 5-minute KICT track snapshots is distributed with this dataset. Further details on the Flight Summaries and Flight Track Imagery dataset are available here.

The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place in central Oklahoma during the April-June 2011 period. The experiment was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation (GV) program. The field campaign leveraged the unprecedented observing infrastructure currently available in the central United States, combined with an extensive sounding array, remote sensing and in situ aircraft observations, NASA GPM ground validation remote sensors, and new ARM instrumentation purchased with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. The overarching goal was to provide the most complete characterization of convective cloud systems, precipitation, and the environment that has ever been obtained, providing constraints for model cumulus parameterizations and space-based rainfall retrieval algorithms over land that had never before been available.

Further details on GPM MC3E are available at http://gpm.nsstc.nasa.gov/mc3e/. Information on MC3E ARM is available at http://campaign.arm.gov/mc3e/.

The UND Cessna Citation II Research Aircraft used for the MC3E experiment is owned and operated by the University of North Dakota. The Citation II is a twin-engine fanjet with an operating ceiling of 43,000 feet (13.1 km). The turbofan engines provide sufficient power to cruise at speeds of up to 340 knots (175 m s-1) or climb at 3300 feet per minute (16.8 m s- 1). These high performance capabilities are accompanied by relatively low fuel consumption at all altitudes, giving the Citation an on-station time of 3-5 hours, depending on mission type. Long wings allow it to be operated out of relatively short airstrips and to be flown at the slower speeds (140 kts/72 m s-1) necessary for many types of measurements. The Citation is certified for flight into known icing conditions. Further details on the UND Cessna Citation II are available at http://cumulus.atmos.und.edu/.

This dataset consists of the final processed files from the following three instruments installed on the UND Cessna Citation II: global navigation satellite system (GNSS), global positioning system (GPS) and accelerometer. These files contain records of flight time (UT seconds from midnight) and aircraft latitude, longitude and altitude. Additionally, the dataset contains IWG1 data.

Michael Poellot
University of North Dakota
4149 University Avenue
Stop 9006
Grand Forks, ND 58202-9006

Andrew Heymsfield
NCAR
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO, 80307-3000

Data files are of the form:

yyyy-mm-dd_CITATION.dat
mc3e_navCit_yyyymmdd_ffffff_1Hz.txt

where

mc3e = Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment
CITATION = UND Cessna Citation II Research Aircraft
navCit = Citation Navigation
yyyy = year
mm = month
dd = day
ffffff = flight identifier
Hz = Hertz
dat = Data file
txt = ASCII text file

The GPM Ground Validation UND Citation Navigation Data MC3E dataset consists of ASCII (.txt and .dat) files. The .dat files contain rows of data in the IWG1 Packet format. Further information on the IWG1 data format is available at http://www.eol.ucar.edu/raf/Software/iwgadts/IWG1_Def.html. The .txt files from UND contain a header followed by rows of data. Additional details on the data format are found at http://cumulus.atmos.und.edu/fileheader.php.

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

References

Delene, D. J., Aircraft Data Processing and Analysis Software Package, Earth Science Informatics, 1-16, 2010, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12145-010-0061-4, DOI: 10.1007/s12145-010-0061-4.

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/