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    • 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
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      • 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.
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      • 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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DOCUMENTATION

Documentation

Guide Documents

Dataset PI Documents

Dataset Software

TCSP Cloud Radar System (CRS)

Table of Contents

Introduction
Instrument Description
Documentation
File Naming Convention		 Data Format
References
Contact Information

1. Introduction

The Cloud Radar System (CRS) data were collected in support of The Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes mission (TCSP), conducted by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in Costa Rica throughout July 2005. The TCSP mission collected data for research and documentation of "cyclogenesis", the interaction of temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind and air pressure that creates ideal birthing conditions for tropical storms, hurricanes and related phenomena. The goal of this mission was to help us better understand how hurricanes and other tropical storms are formed and intensify.

The CRS provides vertically profiled reflectivity and Doppler velocity at aircraft nadir along the flight track.

Instrument Description

The CRS is a 94 GHz (W-band; 3 mm wavelength) Doppler radar developed for autonomous operation in the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft and for ground-based operation. It provides high-resolution profiles of reflectivity and Doppler velocity in clouds and it has important applications to atmospheric remote sensing studies. The CRS was designed to fly with the Cloud Lidar System (CLS), in the tail cone of an ER-2 superpod. There are two basic modes of operation of the CRS: 1) ER-2 mode ,with reflectivity, Doppler, and linear-depolarization measurements, and 2) ground-based mode, with full polarimetric capability. The ER-2 mode was used during the TCSP mission.

The CRS consists of subsystems including the transmitter/receiver, antenna, processor/radar controller, and disk data storage. More detailed information about the Cloud Radar System, including system specifications, may be found at the CRS Home Page.

Documentation

Included with our documentation package are the following files:

UF-IDL.guide.txt - An IDL help guide for the binary data which is in Universal Format (UF).
CRS-UF.txt - A text version of the Universal format for CRS binary data (level 1).
ASCII-README.txt - A description of the ASCII data product files.
software.tar - Contains numerous program files to be used with IDL that will extract specific pieces of information from the CRS binary data files.
formatspec_2_0.pdf - The Gaines-Hipskind ASCII file format specification, version 2.

Full Instrument documentation for the CRS may be found at the CRS Home Page.

NOTE: Use of these software files requires the commercial visualization program IDL available from ITT Corporation.

File Naming Convention

Binary Data

These files are in Universal Format and contain the full reflectivity and Doppler data set. These files are large, ranging from 10-100 MB per flight leg. Currently these data are in BETA release only, and can be obtained directly from the data producer. To obtain these files, please use the quicklooks to determine cases you may be interested in. Upon identification of such cases, please contact CRS data producers and they will arrange the best possible method of data delivery. http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/912/edop/crs_id_description.htm

ASCII Data (Reflectivity and Ice Water Content)

This dataset includes preliminary radar reflectivity products measured by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Cloud Radar System (CRS) during the TCSP field campaign.

The ASCII files are named:

CRYYMMDD_hhmm__REF.ER2 (reflectivity)
CRYYMMDD_hhmm__IWC.ER2 (ice water content)

Where, YY=year, MM=month, DD=day, hh=hour and mm=minute
and, REF=reflectivity, IWC=ice water content and ER2=instrument platform.

Browse

Browse images of reflectivity and Doppler are derived from the Universal Format (UF) data files which are segmented into straight and level flight tracks.

The browse files are named:

crs_YYMMDD_ssss-eeee_v1.gif
crs_YYMMDD_ssss-eeee_v1_merge.gif

Where, YY=year, MM=month, DD=day, ssss=start time(hhmm), eeee=stop time (hhmm), v1=version

Data Format

Binary Data

These files are in Universal Format and contain the full reflectivity and Doppler data set. These files are large, ranging from 10-100 MB per flight leg. Currently these data are in BETA release only, and can be obtained directly from the data producer. To obtain these files, please use the quicklooks to determine cases you may be interested in. Upon identification of such cases, please contact CRS data producers and they will arrange the best possible method of data delivery. http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/912/edop/crs_id_description.htm

ASCII Data (Reflectivity and Ice Water Content)

The ASCII reflectivity data are in the Gaines-Hipskind ASCII file format. This format specification can be found in the file formatspec_2_0.pdf. The layout and other specifics of the data files can be found in the document ASCII-README.txt. These documents and more are included with the dataset.

References

Li L., G. M. Heymsfield, P. E. Racette, L. Tian, E. Zenker, 2003: A 94 GHz Cloud Radar System on a NASA High-altitude ER-2 Aircraft, J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 21, 1378-1388.

M.J. McGill, L. Li, W.D. Hart, G.M. Heymsfield, D.L. Hlavka, P.E. Racette, L. Tian, M.A. Vaughan, and D.M. Winker, 2004: Combined Lidar-Radar Remote Sensing: Initial Results from CRYSTAL-FACE, J. Geophys. Res.,109, D2703.

Ridley B., L. Ott, K. Pickering, L. Emmons, D. Montzka, A. Weinheimer, D. Knapp, F. Grahek, L. Li, G. Heymsfield, M. McGill, P. Kucera, M. J. Mahoney, D. Baumgardner, M. Schultz, and B. Brasseur, 2004: Florida Thunderstorms: A Faucet of Reactive Nitrogen to the Upper Troposphere,J. Geophys. Res., 109, D17305, doi:10.1029/2004JD004769.

Evans, K.F., J. R. Wang, P. E. Racette, G. M. Heymsfield, and L. Li, 2005: Ice Cloud Retrievals and Analysis with the Compact Scanning Submillimeter Imaging Radiometer and the Cloud Radar System during CRYSTAL-FACE, J. App. Met., 44, 839-859.

Li L., G. M. Heymsfield, L. Tian, P. E. Racette, 2005: Measurements of Ocean Surface Backscattering Using an Airborne 94-GHz Cloud Radar - Implication for Calibration of Airborne and Spaceborne W-band Radars, J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 22, 1033-1045.

Mitrescu, C., J, M. Haynes, G. L. Stephens, S. D. Miller, G. M. Heymsfield, and M. J. McGill 2005: Cirrus cloud optical, microphysical, and radiativeproperties observed during the CRYSTAL-FACE experiment: A lidar-radar retrieval system, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D09208, doi:10.1029/2004JD005605.

Wang, Z., G. M. Heymsfield, L. Li, and A. J. Heymsfield, 2005: Retrieving optically thick ice cloud microphysical properties by using airborne dual-wavelength radar measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D19201, doi:10.1029/2005JD005969.

Heymsfield, G. M., L. Li, L. Tian, M. McGill, Z. Wang, 2003: Thunderstorm generated cirrus observed from X and W-band airborne radar during CRYSTAL-FACE, Preprints 31st AMS Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, 6-12 August.

Lihua Li, G. M. Heymsfield, P. E. Racette, L. Tian, 2003: Calibration of a 94 GHZ airborne cloud radar using measurements from the ocean surface , Preprints 31st AMS Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, 6-12 August.

Racette, P. E., G. M. Heymsfield, L. Li, L. Tian and E. Zenker, 2003: The cloud radar system, Preprints 31st AMS Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, 6-12 August.

Tian, L., G. M. Heymsfield, L. Li, 2003: Stratiform precipitation observed by airborne radar at 94 and 10 GHZ, Preprints 31st AMS Conference on Radar Meteorology, Seattle, WA, 6-12 August.

Tian L., R. Srivastava, G. Heymsfield, L. Li, 2004: Estimation of raindrop size distribution in stratiform rain from dual-wavelength airborne Doppler radars,2nd TRMM Internal Science Conference, 6-10 September, Nara, Japan.

Sayres, D. S., J. V.Ptiiman, E.M. Weinstock, J.G. Anderson, G. Heymsfield, L. Li, A. Fridlind and A.S. Ackerman, 2004: Methods for validation and intercomparison of remote sensing and in situ ice water measurements: Case studies from CRYSTAL-FACE and model results.SPARC, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, August 1-6, 2004.

Evans, F, J.R. Wang, P.E. Racette, G. Heymsfield, L. Li, 2004: Submillimeter-wave radiometric measurements of ice cloudswith COSSIR, Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing Applications,February 24-27, Rome, Italy.

Wang Z., G. M. Heymsfield, L. Li, A. J. Heymsfield, 2004: Ice cloud microphysical property retrieval using airborne two-frequency radars.SPIE Asia-Pacific Symposium on Remote Sensing 2004, Honolulu, HI, November 2004.

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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