DCOTSS: Radar and Satellite Data on North American Stratospheric Convection

NASA's Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) campaign provides radar and satellite data products for studying tropopause-overshooting convection. The dataset includes NEXRAD GridRad data at 10-minute intervals over the contiguous United States and GOES-16/17 satellite imagery products over North America. Data collection is ongoing, with the first deployment featured, and is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Identifying tropopause-overshooting convection based on NEXRAD radar reflectivity and radial velocity spectrum width.
• Analyzing convective overshoot probability and cloud top altitude based on GOES visible and infrared satellite imagery.
• Studying the transport of water and pollutants into the stratosphere based on data from the North American Monsoon Anticyclone region.
• Supporting flight planning and forecasting activities for airborne research campaigns based on 10-minute frequency data products.

Strengths

• Data products are generated at a 10-minute frequency, supporting high-temporal-resolution analysis.
• Combines complementary data sources: NEXRAD radar network and GOES-16/17 geostationary satellites.
• Domain extends over North America, encompassing most of Mexico and Canada.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.
• Data collection is ongoing and currently only features the first deployment, indicating potential future updates.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected via the DCOTSS field campaign using NASA's ER-2 aircraft, NEXRAD WSR-88D radar, and GOES-16/17 satellites.

Time Range

Data collection spans early to late summer, corresponding to the ~8-week science deployments.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:00:31.499449; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Product domain extends over North America, including the contiguous United States, most of Mexico, and Canada.