CAMEX-4 Campaign Atmospheric Temperature Profiles from Microwave Radiometer

Florida and surrounding regions were the focus of the CAMEX-4 DC-8 Microwave Temperature Profiler dataset. This dataset contains vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature derived from passive microwave radiometer measurements at 56.6 and 58.8 GHz, collected aboard a DC-8 aircraft during the campaign from August 16 to September 25, 2002. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration produced these data, which generate a temperature profile every three kilometers along the flight path.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical temperature structure in the atmosphere during the CAMEX-4 hurricane campaign.
• Validating and calibrating satellite-based microwave temperature sounding algorithms.
• Studying the relationship between brightness temperature measurements at 56.6/58.8 GHz and actual air temperature at altitude.
• Investigating temperature profiles along specific flight paths over the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Strengths

• Data provides a specific temporal coverage from August 16 to September 25, 2002, during the active CAMEX-4 field campaign.
• Profiles are generated at a high spatial resolution, with a new altitude temperature profile produced every three kilometers along the flight path.
• Measurement methodology is clearly described, using a statistical retrieval procedure on brightness temperatures from two specific frequencies (56.6 and 58.8 GHz).

Limitations

• Key structural details like column names, row count, and exact file size are unknown across all platforms.
• There is a significant conflict in the 'last updated' metadata, with dates ranging from 2001-09-25 to 2026-03-13, casting doubt on maintenance records.
• The license is ambiguously noted as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by a passive microwave radiometer (Microwave Temperature Profiler) aboard a DC-8 aircraft, using a statistical retrieval procedure on brightness temperature measurements.

Time Range

2002-08 16 to 2002-09-25

Freshness

2026-03-13 07:06:25.287580

Geography

Data collected from Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida, with flight paths covering regions relevant to the CAMEX-4 hurricane campaign.