COSMIR MC3E: Airborne Microwave Radiometer Data for GPM Validation

Data was collected during the 2011 Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). It provides calibrated airborne radiometric measurements from 9 channels between 50-183 GHz, serving as a high-frequency simulator for the GPM Microwave Imager. The dataset supports the development and validation of satellite precipitation retrieval algorithms.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-based precipitation retrievals based on high-frequency airborne brightness temperature measurements.
• Developing algorithms for the GPM Microwave Imager using simulated conical and cross-track scan data.
• Studying midlatitude convective cloud properties using calibrated radiometric data across nine microwave channels.

Strengths

• Provides well-calibrated radiometric data with an accuracy on the order of ±1K.
• Features a unique scan mode acquiring both conical and cross-track data simultaneously.
• Contains data from nine specific microwave channels (50-183 GHz), with polarization details specified.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting last-updated dates exist (2011 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026 on Data.gov), suggesting potential metadata freshness issues.
• License information is incomplete or listed as 'other-license-specified' without details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the airborne Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) during the MC3E field campaign.

Time Range

2011 (during the MC3E experiment)

Freshness

2026-04-10 19:40:32.672340

Geography

Midlatitude continental region (likely central United States, based on MC3E)