First ISCCP Regional Experiment Kansas Cirrus Surface Radiation Data

Surface radiation measurements were collected every two minutes from November 13 to December 8, 1991, at Tri-City Airport in Parsons, Kansas, as part of the FIRE Cirrus Phase II experiment. The dataset was produced by Colorado State University and archived by NASA's LARC_ASDC. It is designed to support research into cirrus cloud properties and their interaction with solar radiation.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived cloud radiative properties using ground-based surface radiation measurements.
• Analyzing temporal variability of solar irradiance and surface temperature during a cirrus cloud field campaign.
• Studying correlations between atmospheric water vapor indicators (humidity) and surface radiation fluxes.
• Investigating the relationship between surface wind observations and local cloud radiative effects.

Strengths

• Data provides high temporal resolution with measurements recorded every two minutes.
• Observations are anchored to a specific, documented field campaign (FIRE Cirrus Phase II) and geographic location (Parsons, Kansas).
• The dataset's cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals its established use in the scientific community.

Limitations

• The exact number of data rows and total file size are not specified in any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, listing both 2026-03-13 and 1991-12-08.
• Column names are listed as 'unknown' on one platform, though another provides inferred Earth Science keywords.

Provenance

Source

Colorado State University (CSU) Station 2, archived by NASA LARC_ASDC.

Collection Method

Instantaneous readings from surface-based instruments collected during an intensive field observation period.

Time Range

1991-11-13 to 1991-12-08

Freshness

2026-03-13

Geography

Tri-City Airport, Parsons, Kansas (37°20' N, 95°30'30" W).