TC4 Airborne Microwave Brightness Temperature Data

AMPR instrument data captures passive microwave brightness temperatures from a NASA airborne platform during the 2007 TC4 field campaign. The dataset covers a three-week period from July 19 to August 8, 2007, with observations from San Jose, Costa Rica. It provides multi-frequency imagery at 10.7, 19.35, 37.1, and 85.5 GHz, a combination unique to NASA aircraft at the time.

Use Cases

• Analyzing brightness temperature signatures to study the structure and properties of tropical rain cloud systems.
• Investigating the relationship between multi-frequency microwave data (10.7, 19.35, 37.1, 85.5 GHz) and geophysical parameters over ocean and land.
• Calibrating or validating satellite-based microwave radiometer measurements with high-resolution airborne data.
• Examining temporal changes in atmospheric conditions over the eastern Pacific and Central America during July-August 2007.

Strengths

• Data was collected by a low-noise instrument system designed for high spatial and temporal resolution.
• Provides a unique combination of four microwave frequencies (10.7, 19.35, 37.1, 85.5 GHz) from a NASA airborne platform.
• Originates from a focused NASA field campaign (TC4) with a specific scientific mission.

Limitations

• Exact row count, file size, and column structure are unknown across all provided sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-12, while NASA Earthdata lists 2007-08 08.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a 21-day campaign in 2007.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR) instrument mounted on an airborne platform.

Time Range

2007-07 - 2007-08

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:09:18.492713

Geography

Eastern Pacific/Central America region, based out of San Jose, Costa Rica.