NASA GHRC Collaboration between NASA MSFC and The University of Alabama in Huntsville
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        With HyDRO, you can search, discover, and filter GHRC's dataset holdings.

        HyDRO will also help you find information about browse imagery, access restrictions, and dataset guide documents.
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      • Earthdata is NASA's next generation metadata and service discovery tool, providing search and access capabilities for dataset holdings at all of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) including the GHRC.
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  • Measurements
  • Field Campaigns
    • Hurricane Science
      • GHRC has worked with NASA's Hurricane Science Research Program (HSRP) since the 1990's. We are the archive and distribution center for data collected during HSRP field campaigns, as well as the recent Hurricane Science and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Earth Venture mission. Field campaigns provide for intensive observation of specific phenomena using a variety of instruments on aircraft, satellites and surface networks.

        GHRC also hosts a database of Atlantic and Pacific tropical storm tracks derived from the storm data published by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
    • HS3 (2012-14)
      • Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) is an Earth Ventures – Suborbital 1 mission aimed at better understanding the physical processes that control hurricane intensity change, addressing questions related to the roles of environmental conditions and internal storm structures to storm intensification.

        A variety of in-situ, satellite observations, airborne data, meteorological analyses, and simulation data were collected with missions over the Atlantic in August and September of three observation years (2012, 2013, 2014). These data are available at GHRC beginning in 2015.
    • GRIP (2010)
      • The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment was a NASA Earth science field experiment in 2010 that was conducted to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes.

        The GRIP deployment was 15 August – 30 September 2010 with bases in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for the DC-8, at Houston, TX for the WB-57, and at NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, CA for the Global Hawk.
    • TC4 (2007)
      • The NASA TC4 (Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling) mission investigated the structure and properties of the chemical, dynamic, and physical processes in atmosphere of the tropical Eastern Pacific.

        TC4 was based in San Jose, Costa Rica during July 2007.

        The Real Time Mission Monitor provided simultaneous aircraft status for three aircraft during the TC4 experiment. During TC4, the NASA ER-2, WB-57 and DC-8 aircraft flew missions at various times. The science flights were scheduled between 17 July and 8 August 2007.
    • NAMMA (2006)
      • The NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign was a field research investigation based in the Cape Verde Islands, 350 miles off the coast of Senegal in west Africa.

        Commenced in August 2006, NASA scientists employed surface observation networks and aircraft to characterize the evolution and structure of African Easterly Waves (AEWs) and Mesoscale Convective Systems over continental western Africa, and their associated impacts on regional water and energy budgets.
    • TCSP (2005)
      • The Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) mission was an Earth science field research investigation focused on the study of the dynamics and thermodynamics of precipitating cloud systems and tropical cyclones. TCSP was conducted during the period July 1-27, 2005 out of the Juan Santamaria Airfield in San Jose, Costa Rica.

        The TCSP field experiment flew 12 NASA ER-2 science flights, including missions to Hurricanes Dennis and Emily, Tropical Storm Gert and an eastern Pacific mesoscale complex that may possibly have further developed into Tropical Storm Eugene.
    • ACES (2002)
      • The Altus Cumulus Electrification Study (ACES) was aimed at better understanding the causes and effects of electrical storms.

        Based at the Naval Air Station Key West in Florida, researchers in August 2002 chased down thunderstorms using an uninhabited aerial vehicle, or "UAV", allowing them to achieve dual goals of gathering weather data safely and testing new aircraft technology. This marked the first time a UAV was used to conduct lightning research.
    • CAMEX-4 (2001)
      • The Convection And Moisture EXperiment (CAMEX) was a series of NASA-sponsored hurricane science field research investigations. The fourth field campaign in the CAMEX series (CAMEX-4) was held in 16 August - 24 September, 2001 and was based out of Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida.

        CAMEX-4 was focused on the study of tropical cyclone (hurricane) development, tracking, intensification, and landfalling impacts using NASA-funded aircraft and surface remote sensing instrumentation.
    • CAMEX-3 (1998)
      • The Convection And Moisture EXperiment (CAMEX) is a series of hurricane science field research investigations sponsored by NASA. The third field campaign in the CAMEX series (CAMEX-3) was based at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida from 6 August - 23 September, 1998.

        CAMEX-3 successfully studied Hurricanes Bonnie, Danielle, Earl and Georges, yielding data on hurricane structure, dynamics, and motion. CAMEX-3 collected data for research in tropical cyclone development, tracking, intensification, and landfalling impacts using NASA-funded aircraft and surface remote sensing instrumentation.
    • GPM Ground Validation
      • The NASA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) Ground Validation (GV) program includes the following field campaigns:

        a) LPVEx, Gulf of Finland in autumn 2010, to study rainfall in high latitude environments

        b) MC3E, cental Oklahoma spring and early summer 2011, to develop a complete characterization of convective cloud systems, precipitation and the environment

        c) GCPEx, Ontario, Canada winter of 2011-2012, direct and remove sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of precipitating snow.

        d) IFloodS, Iowa, spring and early summer 2013, to study the relative roles of rainfall quantities and other factors in flood genesis.

        e) IPHEx, N. Carolina Appalachians/Piedmont region May-June 2014, for hydrologic validation over varied topography.

        f) OLYMPEx, Washington's Olympic Peninsula scheduled November 2015-February 2016, for hydrologic validation in extreme coastal and topographic gradients
    • OLYMPEX (Upcoming)
      • The OLYMPEX field campaign is scheduled to take place between November, 2015, and February, 2016, on the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

        This field campaign will provide ground-based validation support of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite program that is a joint effort between NASA and JAXA.

        As for all GPM-GV campaigns, the GHRC will provide a collaboration portal to help investigators exchange planning information and to support collection of real-time data as well as mission science, project and instrument status reports during the campaign.
    • IPHEx (2014)
      • The Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment (IPHEx) was conducted in North Carolina during the months of April-June, 2014.

        IPHEx sought to characterize warm season orographic precipitation regimes, and the relationship between precipitation regimes and hydrologic processes in regions of complex terrain.
    • IFLOODs (2013)
      • The Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) experiment was conducted in the central to northeastern part of Iowa in Midwestern United States during the months of April-June, 2013.

        IFloodS' primary goal was to discern the relative roles of rainfall quantities such as rate and accumulation as compared to other factors (e.g. transport of water in the drainage network) in flood genesis.
    • GCPEX (2011-2012)
      • The GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) occurred in Ontario, Canada during the winter season (Jan 15- Feb 26) of 2011-2012.

        GCPEx addressed shortcomings in GPM snowfall retrieval algorithm by collecting microphysical properties, associated remote sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of precipitating snow. Collectively the GCPEx data set provides a high quality, physically-consistent and coherent data set suited to the development and testing of GPM snowfall retrieval algorithm physics.
    • MC3E (2011)
      • The Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place in central Oklahoma during the April–June 2011 period.

        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.
    • LPVEx (2010)
      • The Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx) took place in the Gulf of Finland in September and October, 2010 and collected microphysical properties, associated remote sensing observations, and coordinated model simulations of high latitude precipitation systems to drive the evaluation and development of precipitation algorithms for current and future satellite platforms.

        In doing so, LPVEx sought to address the general lack of dedicated ground-validation datasets from the ongoing development of new or improved algorithms for detecting and quantifying high latitude rainfall
  • Projects
    • HS3 Suborbital Mission
      • Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) is an Earth Ventures – Suborbital 1 mission aimed at better understanding the physical processes that control hurricane intensity change, addressing questions related to the roles of environmental conditions and internal storm structures to storm intensification.
    • DISCOVER - MEaSUREs
      • DISCOVER was funded by NASA’s MEaSUREs program to provide highly accurate, multi-decadal geophysical products derived from satellite microwave sensors.
    • LIS Mission
      • Lightning observations from the Lightning Imaging Sensors (LIS) aboard the NASA’s TRMM satellite and International Space Station, as well as airborne observations and ground validation data.
    • SANDS
      • The SANDS project addressed Gulf of Mexico Alliance priority issues by generating enhanced imagery from MODIS and Landsat data to identify suspended sediment resulting from tropical cyclones. These tropical cyclones have significantly altered normal coastal processes and characteristics in the Gulf region through sediment disturbance.
    • LANCE AMSR2
      • The Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) system provides access to near real-time data (less than 3 hours from observation) from AIRS, AMSR2, MLS, MODIS, and OMI instruments. LANCE AMSR2 products are generated by the AMSR Science Investigator-led Processing System at the GHRC.
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      • The GHRC Innovations Lab is a showcase for emerging geoinformatics technologies resulting from NASA-sponsored research at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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DOCUMENTATION

Documentation

Guide Documents

Dataset PI Documents

Dataset Software

CAMEX-3 NAST-I RADIANCE PRODUCTS

Table of contents

Introduction
Sorties
Browse images: tracks and scenes
NASTI_VIS: An IDL visualization tool for NAST-I
Installation Instructions		 Running the program NASTI_VIS
Windows
UNIX/Linux
Contact Information

Introduction

The NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed- Interferometer (NAST-I) is a high resolution Michelson interferometer, developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, that derives its heritage from the non-scanning High resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS) developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The NAST-I instrument scans the earth from beneath the ER-2 with a nominal spatial resolution of approximately 2.5 km with a total of 13 earth views in the cross-track direction (the resultant swath width covers about 45 km). The unapodized spectral resolution of NAST-I is 0.25 1/cm within a 590-2810 1/cm (3.6-17 micron) spectral range. The instrument flies in the right superpod of NASA's high altitude ER-2 research aircraft. The infrared radiance measurements obtained from the NAST-I instrument provide detailed spectral characteristics of the atmosphere and land surface along with providing detailed atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles derived from either physical or regression based retrieval algorithms.

Additional NAST-I information can be found here.

Sorties

The following lists the sorties (the ER-2 official sortie number), date, and brief description of the mission.

  • Sortie #98-105 August 5, 1998 (Ferry Flight, DFRC to PAFB)/li>
  • Sortie #98-106 August 8, 1998 (Checkout and Andros Overflight) RAM chip failure (no data collected)/li>
  • Sortie #98-107 August 13, 1998 (TEFLUN-B mission and Andros Overflight)/li>
  • Sortie #98-108 August 15, 1998 (TEFLUN-B mission and TRMM underflight)
  • Sortie #98-109 August 23, 1998 (Hurricane Bonnie Eyewall mission and Andros Island overflight)
  • Sortie #98-110 August 24, 1998 (Hurricane Bonnie Eyewall Mission)
  • Sortie #98-111 August 26, 1998 (Hurricane Bonnie Landfall Mission)
  • Sortie #98-112 August 29, 1998 (Hurricane Danielle mission) ER-2 abort (no data collected
  • Sortie #98-113 August 30, 1998 (Hurricane Danielle mission) ER-2 short mission
  • Sortie #98-114 September 2, 1998 (Hurricane / Tropical Storm Earl mission)
  • Sortie #98-115 September 5, 1998 (TEFLUN-B mission and TRMM underflight)
  • Sortie #98-116 September 8, 1998 (TEFLUN-B mission)
  • Sortie #98-117 September 13, 1998 (EOS Calibration / Validation mission)>
  • Sortie #98-118 September 17, 1998 (TEFLUN-B mission)
  • Sortie #98-119 September 21, 1998 (Hurricane Georges Eyewall mission)
  • Sortie #98-120 September 22, 1998 (Hurricane Georges Synoptic Inflow mission)
  • Sortie #98-132 September 23, 1998 relocation to Warner-Robbins AFB, GA
  • Sortie #98-136 September 25, 1998 (Hurricane Georges mission)
  • Sortie #98-137 September 27, 1998 (Hurricane Georges Landfall mission
  • Sortie #98-138 September 28, 1998 (Ferry Flight, RAFB to DFRC)

Browse images: tracks and scenes

These may be found on the CAMEX3 webpage calendar. Select a day on which the instrument flew (see above table) and click on NAST-I. This will bring up a page with thumbnails of each of the browse images available-- scenes or tracks. Click on any of these and a full screen image will pop up.

NASTI_VIS: An IDL visualization tool for NAST-I

Because of the complexity of the NAST-I data (it is in NetCDF), a visualization tool has been created to run under IDL version 5.1 or 5.2. IDL is a commercially available program, and is available from Research Industries, Inc. More information may be found about NetCDF here.

The program written for visulaization of NAST-I data is called NASTI_VIS, and can be found either on the GHRC documents site for NAST-I, or can be directly downloaded from the University of Wisconsin as described in the Installation Instructions paragraph 2 below.

This is a screen shot from the visualization tool showing a flight track segment on the left, and the instrument output on the right.

NASTI_VIS Screenshot

Beta Version 0.71 released on January 14, 1999 supercedes any older version, in fact older versions will not work with latest datasets.

NASTI_VIS is a freely available IDL 5.1/5.2-based visualization tool for the NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed - Interferometer (NAST-I) netCDF apodized data. The program is an IDL widget based (a.k.a Graphical User Interface) visualization tool useful for analysis of the NAST-I calibrated netCDF format data. NASTI_VIS features the following:

  • View any NAST-I wavenumber combination as a Rastor Image having the dimensions of scan angle and time (UTC).
  • Flight track map depicting position of the ER-2 aircraft.
  • Continuous display of data values updated on the flight track map (time, view angle, latitude, longitude, brightness temperature) when the cursor is moved over the Rastor image. Position of the NAST-I field of view (FOV) is also shown on the flight track map to show relative position of the observation with respect to the flight track.
  • View radiance or brightness temperature spectrum by clicking on the Rastor Image- each block on the Rastor image represents a single observation for which the IR spectrum is available.
    • I
  • nteractive ZOOM function and radiance or brightness temperture unit selection is available on the spectra plot window.

Installation instructions

The program will run on most platforms (Unix/Linux/Win see below) where IDL 5.1 is installed and your minimum RAM is 128 MB. Just follow these steps:

(1) Check that IDL version 5.1 is installed. (NASTI_VIS will not work in IDL 5.1 demo mode; however, this will be fixed in the IDL 5.1.1 release).

(2) Download the required program files (Windows/Unix users click right mouse button then 'Save Lin k').

(a) NASTI_VIS IDL 5.1 save file NASTI_VIS (IDL version 5.1) widget program

(b) NASTI_VIS IDL 5.2 save file NASTI_VIS (IDL version 5.2) widget program, ALSO once downloaded RENAME nasti_vis_5_2.sav TO nasti_vis.sav if you have IDL 5.2 installed.

(c) IDL 5.1 startup script An optional startup script used to force IDL into 8 bit mode display.

(3) Download sample NAST-I netCDF data file:
NAST-I netCDF longwave IR sample dataset

Running the program NASTI_VIS

1) Change to subdirectory where nasti_vis.sav resides or ensure that your IDL path points to that subdirectory.

(2) Start IDL, and at the IDL > prompt, just run nasti_vis and the widget based program should appear.

(3) If color table problems happen, just grab the idl_startup.pro script and have the IDL_STARTUP path point to idl_startup.pro to force IDL into 8 bit mode display. This startup file tends to solve the vast majority of color table problems that result from running IDL under anything above 8 bit (256 colors) display.

Windows:

This program has NOT been tested in IDL 5.1 under Windows NT 4.0, but is known to work under Windows 95. The program may lock up under the Windows environment if your RAM is less than the 128 MB required.

UNIX/Linux:

This program has been tested in IDL 5.1 under Solaris, AIX, and Linux. So far, there have been no problem reports from users using the above operating systems.

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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