Aircraft Particle Probe Measurements for Precipitation Validation

Three optical array probes on a Citation II aircraft collected Ice Water Content and particle concentration data over North Carolina from May 9 to June 12, 2014. The dataset supports the Global Precipitation Mission's ground validation efforts by providing in-situ cloud and precipitation particle measurements. Data is stored in NASA Ames ASCII format, with browse images available for 5-second instrument array measurements.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived precipitation estimates from GPM using in-situ Ice Water Content (IWC) and particle concentration measurements.
• Analyzing cloud particle size distributions from PMS 2D-C, SPEC 2D-S, and HVPS-3 probe data for microphysical studies.
• Improving regional hydrology models in North Carolina by incorporating detailed airborne precipitation particle observations.
• Studying the evolution of precipitation systems during the IPHEx campaign's intense observation period.

Strengths

• Data originates from three distinct, specialized particle probes (2D-C, 2D-S, HVPS-3) providing multi-instrument validation.
• Measurements cover a focused 35-day campaign period (May 9 - June 12, 2014) with high temporal resolution (5-second browse images).
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates recognized importance and curation.

Limitations

• Key structural metadata, including column names, row counts, and exact file sizes, are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the license, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.
• The dataset's temporal coverage (May 9-12) is a subset of the full campaign's intense study period (May 1 - June 15).

Provenance

Source

GHRC_DAAC (Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center)

Collection Method

Collected by three two-dimensional optical array probes onboard the University of North Dakota Citation II aircraft.

Time Range

2014-05-09 to 2014-06-12

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:21:08.047652

Geography

North Carolina, United States