NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown Surface Meteorological Data for 2016 El Niño

The central and eastern Pacific Ocean is the focus of this dataset containing 1-minute resolution surface meteorological and ship data from NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, collected from 16 February to 16 March 2016. The data were gathered as part of NOAA's El Niño Rapid Response (ENRR) Field Campaign to document the 2015-2016 El Niño episode. Measurements include air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, sea surface temperature, solar radiation, and ship navigation parameters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between sea surface temperature at 5m depth and overlying air temperature and humidity during an El Niño event.
• Correlating wind speed and wind_from_direction with platform_speed_wrt_ground and platform_course to study ship motion effects on atmospheric measurements.
• Investigating downwelling_shortwave_flux_in_air variability along the ship's track from Hawaii to California to assess cloud and atmospheric conditions.
• Using latitude and longitude time series to map the spatial distribution of meteorological parameters across the tropical Pacific.
• Studying the temporal evolution of air_pressure and relative_humidity at 1-minute resolution to identify short-term atmospheric phenomena.

Strengths

• Data underwent visual screening for physically unreasonable values and correction for known measurement issues.
• Provides high temporal resolution with a 1-minute averaging/collection period for detailed process studies.
• Collected during a targeted field campaign (ENRR) focused on a very strong 2015-2016 El Niño event.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates exist between platforms: datagov lists 2026-03-05, while nasa_earthdata lists 2016-03 16.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, specific license, and author are unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Instrument measurements collected from NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, with instruments ranging from 5m below sea surface to about 16m above sea level.

Time Range

2016-02-16 to 2016-03-16

Freshness

2026-03 05 23:41:13.147703

Geography

Central and eastern Pacific Ocean, along a ship track from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoys along 140°W and 125°W, then to San Diego, California.