SBU Doppler LiDAR Snowstorm Observations from IMPACTS Campaign

January 1 through February 26, 2020 data contains Doppler velocity and backscatter intensity measurements collected by the Stony Brook University Doppler LiDAR. This dataset was produced for the multi-year Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign, which studied snowstorm formation and evolution along the U.S. Atlantic Coast from 2020 to 2023. It is provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in netCDF-4 format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing Doppler velocity to study wind patterns and particle motion within snowbands.
• Using backscatter intensity data to assess cloud and precipitation structure during winter storms.
• Validating and improving numerical weather prediction models for snowfall forecasting.
• Researching the organization and evolution mechanisms of snowbands along the Atlantic Coast.

Strengths

• Data originates from a targeted, three-year NASA field campaign (IMPACTS 2020-2023) focused on snowstorm science.
• Provides specific, calibrated geophysical measurements: Doppler velocity and backscatter intensity.
• Available in the standardized, self-describing netCDF-4 format for scientific analysis.

Limitations

• Exact dataset size (row count, file size) is unspecified across all sources.
• Sources conflict on temporal coverage: one source lists a specific date range (Jan-Feb 2020), while others describe a three-year campaign (2020-2023).
• Detailed column names and a complete data dictionary are not provided.

Provenance

Source

Stony Brook University (SBU) Doppler LiDAR, collected for the NASA IMPACTS campaign.

Collection Method

Field measurements gathered by Doppler LiDAR during the IMPACTS winter deployments.

Time Range

2020-01-01 to 2023 (campaign duration); specific data files cover 2020-01-01 to 2020-02-26.

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:00:53.250319

Geography

U.S. Atlantic Coast region.