Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment » Data

MC3E Data

NOAA datasets from MC3E are available on ESRL/PSL's ftp server at: ftp://ftp1.esrl.noaa.gov/psd3/boundary/pbl/mc3e/products/

Data from the experiment is available for 22 April – 6 June 2011

Documentation for each dataset is also available on the ESRL/PSL ftp server and describes dataset format, calibration, and images of the data. NOAA datasets and documentation are available in the following sub-directories:

Instrument Type FTP location Documentation
Surface Meteorology /surface_met/ PDF
Parsivel Disdrometers & Gauges /parsival_disdrometer/ PDF
S-Band Profiler /s_band_profiler/ PDF
449-MHz Profiler /449_mhz_profiler/ PDF
Vertical Air Motion /omega/ PDF

Additional Notes

Since the MC3E field campaign was sponsored by DOE and NASA, the NOAA datasets, as well as other datasets collected during MC3E, can also be found on DOE and NASA archives.

The NASA's Precipitation Measurement Mission (PMM) has a MC3E FTP site here: ftp://gpm.nsstc.nasa.gov/gpm_validation/mc3e/

The DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility data is linked from their MC3E Website.

Dataset Citation

Publications resulting from using these datasets should identify their source with the following acknowledgment: "Datasets were provided by NOAA Earth Science Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, and NASA Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Ground Validation program". Information about these datasets can be found in the following publications:

Williams, C.R., 2012: Vertical air motion retrieved from dual-frequency profiler observations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 29, 1471-1480, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-11-00176.1.
Tridon, F., A. Battaglia, P. Kollias, E. Luke, and C.R. Williams, 2013: Signal Post-processing and Reflectivity Calibration of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program 915 MHz Wind Profilers. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 30, 1038-1054, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-12-00146.1.

Help Reading the Data

  • S-band Profilers:
    Data is available in four different categories in daily NetCDF files for normal and attenuated precipitation. A sample file is available as is an example NCL program.
  • 449 Profilers:
    Data files are daily collections of hourly data. Each daily NetCDF files is 7M. A sample file is available as is an example NCL program. Variables include:
    Spectra data, mean doppler velocity, signal to noise ratio, power, spectral width, RASS mean noise, RASS temperature, RASS mean doppler velocity, RASS signal to noise, RASS, RASS spectral, and RASS mean noise.