Total Precipitable Water (TPW) CPEX: Satellite Atmospheric Water Vapor

Sixteen DC-8 missions collected this satellite-derived data during the NASA Convective Processes Experiment (CPEX) from 27 May to 24 June 2017. It measures total precipitable water vapor over the North Atlantic, Gulf of America, and Caribbean Sea to study convective storm dynamics. The data are available in netCDF-4 format from 24 May to 20 September 2017.

Use Cases

• Analyzing convective storm initiation and growth based on total precipitable water vapor measurements.
• Studying atmospheric water vapor transport and distribution in the North Atlantic-Caribbean region.
• Validating satellite-derived water vapor products from MetOp-B, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19 platforms.
• Investigating the relationship between water vapor and storm organization/dissipation during early summer.

Strengths

• Data is tied to a specific, well-documented NASA field campaign (CPEX) with 16 dedicated aircraft missions.
• Provides multi-satellite coverage from three distinct platforms (MetOp-B, NOAA-18, NOAA-19).
• Covers a defined oceanic region and time period focused on early summer convective processes.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size/row counts are not provided by any source, limiting technical assessment.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• Metadata freshness is conflicting, with one platform showing a future 'last updated' date (2026).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing products from MetOp-B, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19, collected in support of the CPEX aircraft campaign.

Time Range

2017 - 05-24 to 2017 - 09-20

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:30:49.265251

Geography

North Atlantic-Gulf of America-Caribbean Sea region