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GPM Ground Validation Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) LPVEx

Table of Contents


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

Introduction

The GPM Ground Validation Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) LPVEx dataset includes reflectivity observations and doppler velocity measurements as well as aircraft navigation parameters gathered aboard the University of Wyoming King Air aircraft. Data was collected, as part of the Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx), from September 11, 2010 to October 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Finland. It should be noted that multiple instruments were carried aboard the University of Wyoming King Air (UWKA) including the Cloud Microphysics instrument and the Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) instrument. Data files are in netCDF format. The dataset was collected to aid in achieving the overarching goals of LPVEx, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of precipitation algorithms for current and future satellite platforms and to detect and understand the process of light rainfall formation at high latitudes.

Citation

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

Lecuyer, Tristan and J. French. 2013. GPM Ground Validation Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) LPVEx [indicate subset used]. Dataset 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: http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/GPMGV/LPVEX/WCR/DATA101

Campaign

The Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx) occurred in the Gulf of Finland in September and October 2010. The purpose of LPVEx was to characterize the ability of CloudSat, the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), and existing/planned passive microwave (PMW) sensors such as the GPM microwave imager (GMI) to detect light rain and evaluate their estimates of rainfall intensity in high latitude, shallow freezing level environments. A map of the LPVEx campaign region with the extent of radar coverage and other campaign related information marked is available through the LPVEx website http://lpvex.atmos.colostate.edu/index.php, along with more detailed information about the campaign. Information on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is available at http://pmm.nasa.gov/GPM.

Instrument Description

The UWKA aircraft is a Raytheon King Air 200T (twin turbo-prop) designed to be used for atmospheric research by the University of Wyoming. It was used during LPVEx to acquire data over the study area; the WCR instrument was one of many used during the campaign. More information about the UWKA aircraft is available at http://flights.uwyo.edu/n2uw/.

The WCR instrument was developed through collaboration between researchers at the University of Wyoming and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It is an observational system used to study cloud structure and composition. Output includes high-resolution measurements of reflectivity, velocity, and polarization fields; it operates at 95 GHz (3 mm wavelength). The WCR was installed on the Wyoming King Air aircraft for the LPVEx campaign, with four antennas on the aircraft (A1, A2, A3, A4) and one antenna on the ground (A5). More information about the WCR instrument is available at http://www-das.uwyo.edu/wcr/newwcrpage/.

Investigators

Tristan Lecuyer
Union South
1308 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53715

Jeffrey French
University of Wyoming
College of Engineering
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071

File Naming Convention

The GPM Ground Validation Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) LPVEx dataset consists of .nc netCDF files. The files are named with the following convention:

WCR.LPVEX10.YYYYMMDD.######_******.CPP-++++++.nc

Where,

WCR = Wyoming Cloud Radar
LPVEX10 = Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment campaign
YYYYMMDD = the year, month, and day that the aircraft was flown/data collected
###### = file start time in hhmmss
****** = file stop time in hhmmss
CPP = Cloud Particle probes
++++++ = H1, H2, V2 (All represent different antennas/pointing direction for the radar; H1: vertically up, H2: Down-slant, V2: vertically down. So if a file has all three the radar was transmitting/receiving to all three antennas; if a file only contains H1V2, then only those two antennas were being used for that particular file.)
.nc = netCDF file

Data Format

The GPM Ground Validation Wyoming Cloud Radar (WCR) LPVEx dataset is available in netCDF file format.

References

King Air Research. University of Wyoming website: http://flights.uwyo.edu/n2uw/
LPVEx website: http://lpvex.atmos.colostate.edu/index.php
Wyoming Cloud Radar. University of Wyoming website: http://www-das.uwyo.edu/wcr/newwcrpage/

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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