DC3: In-Situ Aircraft Measurements of Mid-Latitude Convective Storms

May to June 2012 observations from the NSF/NCAR GV-HIAPER and NASA DC-8 aircraft over northeastern Colorado, west Texas to central Oklahoma, and northern Alabama. This dataset contains in-situ measurements of cloud properties, aerosols, photolysis rates, and meteorology from the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign. The campaign aimed to understand storm dynamics, lightning-produced nitrogen oxides, and the impact of deep convection on upper tropospheric chemistry.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between lightning activity and nitrogen oxide production based on in-situ chemical measurements.
• Studying cloud microphysics and aerosol properties within and around deep convective storms.
• Investigating changes in upper tropospheric chemistry in the 12-48 hours following active convection.
• Modeling photolysis rates in convective environments using measured j-value data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for a major, coordinated field campaign (DC3) with a defined science mission.
• Multi-platform data collection from three research aircraft (NSF/NCAR GV-HIAPER, NASA DC-8, DLR-Falcon) and ground-based networks.
• Campaign conducted over a wide geographic sample of storm types across three distinct U.S. regions.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in the available metadata.
• The license is specified only as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• Metadata freshness is inconsistent, with last updated dates ranging from 2012 to 2026 across entries.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NSF/NCAR

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected onboard research aircraft during the DC3 field campaign.

Time Range

May to June 2012

Freshness

2026-04-10 03:53:20.123158 (most recent update from datagov platform)

Geography

Northeastern Colorado, west Texas to central Oklahoma, and northern Alabama, USA; base location Salina, Kansas.