Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) [2012, 2013]
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) [2012, 2013] dataset includes measurements gathered by the HAMSR instrument during the HS3 campaign which took place during the hurricane seasons of 2011 through 2014 in the Atlantic Ocean basin region. HAMSR has 25 spectral channels in 3 bands (50-60 Ghz, 118 Ghz, 183 Ghz), and it provides measurements that can be used to infer the 3D distribution of temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere, even in the presence of clouds. HAMSR is mounted in payload zone 3 near the nose of the Global Hawk NASA aircraft. Data is available in netCDF/CF format and, currently, only available for 2012 - 2013.
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.
Lambrigtsen, B. 2015. Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) [indicate subset used]. Dataset available online [http://hs3.nsstc.nasa.gov/pub/hs3/HAMSR/] from the NASA EOSDIS Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center, Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/HS3/HAMSR/DATA201
Campaign
The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) was a five-year NASA mission specifically targeted to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin. Goals for HS3 included: assessing the relative roles of large-scale environment and storm-scale internal processes; and addressing the controversial role of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) in tropical storm formation and intensification as well as the role of deep convection in the inner-core region of storms. To achieve these goals, sustained measurements over several years was needed to get a large enough sample of storms. Therefore, field measurements took place from 2012 through 2014 for one month during each hurricane season. The HS3 campaign utilized two Global Hawks, one with instruments geared toward measurement of the environment and the other with instruments suited to inner-core structure and processes. The environmental payload included the scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS) and the AVAPS dropsonde system; the over-storm payload included the HIWRAP conically scanning Doppler radar, the HIRAD multi-frequency interferometric radiometer, and the HAMSR microwave sounder. More information about the HS3 campaign can be found here http://hs3.nsstc.nasa.gov/.
Instrument Description
The High Altitude Monolithic Microwave integrated Circuit (MMIC) Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) is a microwave atmospheric sounder developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the NASA Instrument Incubator Program. Operating with 25 spectral channels in 3 bands (50-60 Ghz, 118 Ghz, 183 Ghz), it provides measurements that can be used to infer the 3D distribution of temperature, water vapor, and cloud liquid water in the atmosphere, even in the presence of clouds. HAMSR is mounted in payload zone 3 near the nose of the Global Hawk NASA aircraft. The HAMSR instrument is compact enough to fit into a package that is 90 cm long, 38 cm wide, and 33 cm tall and weighs 45 kg. It is a downward looking cross-track scanner; its scan axis is oriented along the flight path, and its antenna system includes two back-to-back reflectors. Data is transmitted to the ground in near real time to be processed and distributed to users. Data is processed through two processing levels. Level 1 data files contain calibrated brightness temperatures with geolocation and timestamp information. Level 2 data files include temperature, water-vapor, and cloud-liquid-water profiles, and derived products including potential temperature and relative humidity. The HAMSR instrument has been used for previous campaigns as well, including CAMEX-4, HRD, TCSP, and NAMMA. More information about the HAMSR instrument can be found in the journal article The High-Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer for the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Instrument Description and Performance.
Investigators
Bjorn Lambrigtsen
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology
M/S 169-237
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
File Naming Convention
The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Global Hawk High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) [2012, 2013] dataset files are named with the following convention:
HAMSR_L##_<start time>_<end time>_v**.nc
L##_validation_HAMSR_L##_<start time>_<end time>_v**.pdf
Where,
HAMSR = High Altitude Monolithic Microwave integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer
L## = data processing level (Level 1B or Level 2)
<start time> = YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
<end time> = YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
v** = version number of data
.nc = netCDF
.pdf = adobe pdf file
Data Format
HAMSR data files are available in netCDF/CF format. Level 1B data files contain calibrated brightness temperatures with geolocation and timestamp data. Level 2 data files include temperature, water-vapor, and cloud-liquid-water profiles, and derived products including potential temperature and relative humidity. More information about data format is available in the PI's documentation files HAMSR_L1B_description.pdf and HAMSR_L2_description.pdf.
Read software is also available for the HAMSR data files as MATLAB scripts: read_HAMSR_L1B_netCDF_UI.m and read_HAMSR_L2_netCDF_UI.m.
References
Brown, S. T., Lambrigtsen, B., Denning, R. F., Gaier, T., Kangaslahti, P., Lim, B. H., Tanabe, J. M., and A. B. Tanner, 2011: The High-Altitude MMIC sounding radiometer for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle: Instrument description and performance. Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions, 49, 3291 - 3301.
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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