CAMEX-3 MIR: Airborne Microwave Radiometer Plots

NASA's CAMEX-3 ER-2 Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) dataset contains browse images of brightness temperature measurements. The data were collected from a high-altitude aircraft during a 1998 field campaign to study tropical cyclones over the Atlantic. The plots, available as GIF files, visualize atmospheric features including water vapor, clouds, and precipitation.

Use Cases

• Analyzing atmospheric water vapor and cloud structures based on brightness temperature imagery.
• Studying the evolution of tropical cyclones using time-series data from August-September 1998.
• Validating satellite microwave radiometer retrievals with high-altitude airborne measurements.
• Investigating precipitation features within storm systems using millimeter-wave imaging.

Strengths

• Data originates from a NASA-led field campaign (CAMEX-3), indicating a controlled scientific collection.
• Provides a specific time range of observations from August 8 to September 8, 1998.
• Cross-platform presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata signals established scientific use.

Limitations

• Dataset is described as 'browse-only', likely containing only image plots rather than the underlying numerical radiometric data.
• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and specific file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting license information exists ('other-license-specified' vs. 'None').

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) instrument onboard the NASA ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft.

Time Range

August 8, 1998 to September 8, 1998

Freshness

2026-03-13 (metadata update on datagov, though the underlying data is from 1998)

Geography

Region around Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, and the Atlantic tropical cyclone basin.