TAMMS IMPACTS: Aircraft Wind Measurements for Snowstorms

NASA's Turbulent Air Motion Measurement System (TAMMS) IMPACTS dataset provides wind speed, wind direction, and cross-wind speed measurements from the NASA P-3 aircraft. The data was collected during the three-year Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign from 2020 to 2023. These observations support research into snowband formation, microphysical characteristics of snow particles, and the improvement of snowfall remote sensing and modeling.

Use Cases

• Analyzing wind field structure within snowbands based on aircraft-measured wind speed and direction.
• Studying the relationship between turbulent air motion and snow particle growth mechanisms during winter storms.
• Validating and improving satellite remote sensing retrievals of snowfall using in-situ flight-level wind data.
• Initializing or evaluating high-resolution numerical weather prediction models for East Coast snowstorms.

Strengths

• Data originates from a dedicated NASA field campaign (IMPACTS) with a clear three-year scientific mission.
• Provides a multi-year temporal coverage from January 18, 2020, through February 28, 2023, capturing multiple winter seasons.
• Measurements are from a well-defined instrument (TAMMS) on a specific platform (NASA P-3 aircraft), ensuring consistency.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row count, and exact file size are not provided in the available descriptions.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' on one platform and 'None' on another, creating uncertainty for reuse.
• Data freshness is unclear; the last update date (2026) on one platform is inconsistent with the campaign end date (2023).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Measurements gathered by the Turbulent Air Motion Measurement System (TAMMS) instrument onboard the NASA P-3 aircraft.

Time Range

January 18, 2020 to February 28, 2023

Freshness

Last updated date conflicts: 2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 2023-02-28 on nasa_earthdata.

Geography

U.S. Atlantic Coast region, specifically areas studied by the IMPACTS field campaign.