GPM OLYMPEX Airborne Microwave Radiance Measurements

Microwave radiance measurements were collected by the Microwave Atmospheric Sounder on Cubesat (MASC) aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the 34-day Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX) field campaign. This dataset supports validation of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's satellite observations. Data are provided by the GHRC DAAC in HDF-EOS5 format.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite microwave radiance measurements from the GPM core observatory.
• Analyzing cloud and precipitation structure over complex terrain in the Pacific Northwest.
• Studying atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles derived from microwave sounder data.
• Assimilating high-resolution airborne observations into numerical weather prediction models.

Strengths

• Data originates from a focused NASA field campaign (OLYMPEX) designed for GPM validation.
• Measurements cover a specific 34-day period from November 10 to December 13, 2016.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates recognized importance.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (row count, file size) are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date (2015-12-13 vs. 2026-03-13).
• Specific license terms are unclear, listed as 'other-license-specified' or 'None'.

Provenance

Source

GHRC_DAAC (Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center)

Collection Method

Collected by the MASC instrument aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the OLYMPEX field campaign.

Time Range

November 10, 2016 to December 13, 2016

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:22:38.973647

Geography

Pacific Northwest, specifically the Olympic Mountains region