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        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.
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      • 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.
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      • 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
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    • 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)
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        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
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      • DISCOVER was funded by NASA’s MEaSUREs program to provide highly accurate, multi-decadal geophysical products derived from satellite microwave sensors.
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      • 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.
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      • 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 ER-2 Doppler Radar (EDOP)

Table of Contents

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

Introduction

The ER-2 Doppler radar (EDOP) 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 ER-2 Doppler radar is an X-band (9.6 GHz) fully-coherent pulsed Doppler radar, and is mounted in the nose of ER-2 aircraft. EDOP measures the vertical reflectivity and wind structure of mesoscale precipitation systems.

Instrument Description

EDOP consists of one pitch-stabilized nadir pointing radar beam, and one forward pointing beam (33 degree ahead of nadir). The beam width of the antenna is 3 degrees in the vertical and horizontal directions, which, for a 20 km altitude yields a nadir footprint at the surface of 1 km. This allows for mapping of time height sections of reflectivity and Doppler winds within the precipitation region from which vertical air motions can be obtained. In addition, the forward beam measures linear depolarization ratio (LDR), which provides useful information on the cloud micro-physical properties. The characteristics of EDOP are as follows:

Frequency / Wavelength: 9.6 GHz / 3.12 cm
Peak Transmit Power: 15 kW
Pulse Repetition Frequency: 4.4 kHz
Pulse Width: .5 micro-sec
Antenna Beam Widths: 2.9 deg
Antenna Gain: 36 dB

Data System:

EDOP utilizes real-time, digital IF processing to provide reflectivity and pulse pair velocity estimates. NCAR's VIRAQ and quad digital receiver hardware provides matched filtering, amplitude, and in-phase/ quadrature measurements.

738 range gates; 12bit digitization
37.5 meter gate spacing
data storage 125 kbytes/s; 3gbyte/flight
periodic internal calibrations during flight
pulse repetition frequency=4.4 khz
nyquist velocity=34 m/s
maximum range=34 km

Documentation

Full Instrument documentation for the ER-2 Doppler Radar may be found at the EDOP Home Page. 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).
EDOP-UF.txt - A text version of the Universal format for EDOP 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 EDOP binary data files.
formatspec_2_0.pdf - The Gaines-Hipskind ASCII file format specification, version 2.

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 files, please use the quicklooks to determine cases you may be interested in. Upon identification of such cases, please contact EDOP data producers and they will arrange the best possible method of data delivery. http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/912/edop/tcsp_edop_data.htm

ASCII Reflectivity Data:

This dataset includes preliminary radar reflectivity products measured by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ER-2 Doppler Radar (EDOP) during the TCSP field campaign.

The ASCII files are named:

EDYYMMDD_hhmm__REF.ER2 (reflectivity)
EDYYMMDD_hhmm__VEL.ER2 (velocity)

Where, YY=year, MM=month, DD=day, hh=hour, and mm=minute

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:

edop_YYMMDD_ssss-eeee_v1.gif
edop_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 files, please use the quicklooks to determine cases you may be interested in. Upon identification of such cases, please contact EDOP data producers and they will arrange the best possible method of data delivery. http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/912/edop/tcsp_edop_data.htm

ASCII Reflectivity Data:

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

Caylor, I. J., G. M. Heymsfield, S. W. Bidwell, and S. Ameen, 1994: NASA ER-2 Doppler radar reflectivity calibration for CAMEX Project. NASA Tech. Memo, 104611, 15pp.

Caylor, I. J., G. M. Heymsfield, R. Meneghini, and L.S. Miller, 1996: Correction of sampling errors in ocean surface cross-section estimates from nadir-looking weather radar. J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 13, 203-210.

Geerts, B., G.M. Heymsfield, L. Tian, J.B. Halverson, A. Guillory, and M.I. Mejia, 1999: Hurricane Georges' landfall in the Dominican Republic: detailed airborne Doppler radar imagery. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 81, 999-1018.

Heymsfield, G. M., J. B. Halverson, J. Simpson, L. Tian, 2001: ER-2 Doppler Radar (EDOP) investigations of the eyewall of Hurricane Bonnie during CAMEX-3. Mon. Wea. Rev., 40, 1310-1330.

Heymsfield, G. M., B. Geerts, and L. Tian, 2000: TRMM Precipitation Radar reflectivity profiles compared to high-resolution airborne and ground-based radar measurements. J. Appl. Meteor., 81, 2080-2102.

Heymsfield, G. M., J. B. Halverson, I. J. Caylor, 1999: A wintertime Gulf Coast squall line observed by EDOP airborne Doppler radar. Mon. Wea. Rev., 127, 2928-2949.

Heymsfield, G. M., I. J. Caylor, J. M. Shepherd, W. S. Olson, S. Bidwell, W. C. Boncyk, and S. Ameen, 1996: Structure of Florida thunderstorms using high-altitude aircraft radiometer and radar observations. J. Appl. Meteor., 35, 1736-1762.

Heymsfield, G. M., S. Bidwell, I. J. Caylor, S. Ameen, S. Nicholson, W. Boncyk, L. Miller, D. Vandemark, P. E. Racette, and L. R. Dod, 1996: The EDOP radar system on the high-altitude NASA ER-2 aircraft. J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 13, 795-809.

Kummerow, C., W. S. Olson, and L. Giglio, 1996: A simplified scheme for obtaining precipitation and vertical hydrometeor profiles from passive microwave sensors. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing.34, 1213-1232.

Meneghini R., S. W. Bidwell, R. Rincon, G. M. Heymsfield, and L. Liao, 2003: Differential-frequency Doppler weather radar: Theory and experiment. Radio Sci., 38, 5-1 to 5-5.

Olson, W. S., C. D. Kummerow, G. M. Heymsfield, and L. Giglio, 1996: A method for combined passive/active microwave retrievals of cloud and precipitation profiles. J. Appl. Meteor., 35, 1763-1789.

Skofronic-Jackson, G. M., J. Wang, G.M. Heymsfield, R. Hood, W. Manning, R. Meneghini, and J. Weinman., 2003: Combined Radiometer Radar Microphysical Profile Estimations with Emphasis on High-Frequency Brightness Temperature Observations. J. Appl. Meteor., 42, 476-487.

Tian, L., Heymsfield, G. M., Srivastava, R. C.. 2002: Measurement of Attenuation with Airborne and Ground-Based Radar in Convective Storms over Land and Its Microphysical Implications. J. Appl.Meteor, 41, 716–733.

Wang, J. R., J. Y. Zhan, and P. Racette, 1997: Storm-associated radiometric signatures in the frequency range of 89-220 GHz. J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 14, 13-31.

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
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Huntsville, AL 35805
Phone: 256-961-7932
E-mail: support-ghrc@earthdata.nasa.gov
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