FIRE Marine Stratocumulus: Surface Radiation and Weather Data from San Nicolas Island

Colorado State University surface radiation data collected during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment marine stratocumulus intensive field observation. The dataset consists of ten-minute averages of wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, and shortwave, near IR, and longwave radiation measurements. It was gathered by NASA from a radiometric ground station on San Nicolas Island, California, during the field campaign from June 29 to July 20, 1987.

Use Cases

• Validate and improve cloud/radiation parameterizations in climate models based on high-resolution surface radiation measurements.
• Study the interaction of physical processes in marine stratocumulus cloud life cycles based on coordinated surface and satellite observations.
• Analyze relationships between shortwave, near IR, and longwave radiation fluxes and local meteorological conditions like wind and temperature.
• Investigate the radiative properties of marine stratocumulus systems during their life cycles based on the ten-minute averaged time series.

Strengths

• Data includes seven distinct measurement types: wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, and three radiation bands.
• Temporal resolution is ten-minute averages, providing detailed time-series for analysis.
• Collected as part of a coordinated intensive field observation (IFO) combining satellite, airborne, and surface data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a specific field campaign in 1987; temporal coverage is limited.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected from a radiometric ground station on San Nicolas Island, California, during the FIRE marine stratocumulus IFO.

Time Range

June 29 - July 20, 1987

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:45:32.547040; freshness should be verified.

Geography

San Nicolas Island, off the southwestern coast of California, USA.