NCAR ELECTRA AIRCRAFT - TEN-KILOMETER AVERAGED, LOW-LEVEL SLOW DATA

D. Rogers (SCRIPPS, USA)

Announced availability: 1 August 1995

Data Access

Ten-km averaged Electra slow data are archived and distributed by the Pennsylvania State University Department of Meteorology Field Project Data Archive (http://wwwarc.essc.psu.edu).

Starting June 1996, data will be available upon request from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, NC (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov) and from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO (http://dss.ucar.edu/pub/toga_coare/).

Background

During the four-month field phase of TOGA COARE, the NCAR Electra operated out of Honiara in the Solomon Islands from 16 November 1992 to 18 February 1993, conducting 32 flights for a total of 204 hours. The data files contain the 10-km averaged data from 24 low level flights (altitudes less than 60 m).

Data Information

File name: Electra_slow
Number of data files: 4
N308D_atm.asc      jday spm ta thetae sh tsurf ws irb irt swb swt
N308D_bulk.asc     jday spm Qe Qh Tau Zl ta10 ws10 sh10
N308D_eddy.asc     jday_eddy spm_eddy wq wpt wur wvr
N308D_pos.asc      jday spm latg longg alt ps
Number of documentation files: 2 (N308D_lowlevel.readme, electra_slow.asc)
Dataset format: ASCII
Dataset volume: 147 KB

File Header


   Variable  Units                   Comments
   -------   -----                   --------
   jday      Julian Day
   jday_eddy Julian Day              -time that matches eddy fluxes
                                      only
   spm       seconds past midnight   -midnight is on the day prior to
                                      the day of the flight, GMT (i.e.
                                      spm = 86500 for a nov15 flight;
                                      date is actually 100 seconds into
                                      nov 16 GMT)
   spm_eddy  sec past midnight       -same as above only for eddy flux
                                      variables
   ta        deg C                   -ambient temperature, fuselage
   ta10      dec C                   -temperature corrected to 10 m
                                      using the COARE bulk v2f code
   thetae    dec K                   -equivalent potential temperature
   sh        g/kg                    -specific humidity
   sh10      g/kg                    -humidity corrected to 10 m using
                                      the COARE bulk v2f code
   tsurf      deg C                  -radiometric sea surface temperature,
                                      JPL
   ws        m/s                     -GPS corrected wind speed
   ws10      m/s                     -wind speed corrected to 10 m using
                                      the COARE bulk v2f code
   irb,irt   W/m^2                   -infrared irradiance, bottom, top
   swb,swt   W/m^2                   -shortwave irradiance, bottom, top
   ps        mb                      -static pressure, fuselage
   Qe        W/m^2                   -COARE bulk v2f latent heat flux
   Qh        W/m^2                   -COARE bulk v2f sensible heat flux
   Tau       m^2/s^2                 -COARE bulk v2f wind stress
   Zl        -                       -COARE bulk v2f stability parameter (Z/L)
   wq        W/m^2                   -eddy correlation latent heat flux
   wpt       W/m^2                   -eddy correlation sensible heat flux
   wur       m^2/s^2                 -eddy correlation along wind momentum
                                      flux
   wvr       m^2/s^2                 -eddy correlation cross wind momentum
                                      flux
Data Example 

320.025718 88622.500000 95.279671 6.768230 0.019207 -2.120521 27.990164 3.722908 18.796995
320.026875 88722.500000 89.233887 4.919775 0.014876 -2.790447 28.032648 3.262125 18.305696
320.028032 88822.500000 87.708160 4.320335 0.015506 -2.464129 28.027405 3.351413 18.316181
320.029190 88922.500000 92.735909 4.894691 0.018279 -2.023369 28.014688 3.654209 18.426275
Below is the conversion from the above variable array index number to the day the flight began (GMT) and the fraction of the Julian Day which starts and ends the low-level part of the flight. 


   date       start     end index     start     end Julian
              index                 Julian Day     Day
  nov15         1           46       321.0257    321.0997
  nov19         47          70       324.8042    324.8505
  nov26         71          76       332.1311    332.1528
  nov28         77          98       333.1754    333.2266
  dec02         99         112       337.8079    337.8982
  dec03        113         121       338.7986    338.8781
  dec05        122         133       340.8026    340.8733
  dec06        134         138       341.8106    341.8153
  dec08        139         150       343.8216    343.8216
  dec09        151         226       344.8065    344.9309
  dec10        227         243       345.8260    345.8823
  dec13        244         249       348.8140    348.8198
  dec14        250         273       349.8594    349.9035
  dec16        274         310       352.0966    352.1746
  jan09        311         360       375.9803    376.0804
  jan12        361         368       378.9663    379.0375
  jan13        369         390       379.9949    380.0571
  jan14        391         405       380.9869    381.0483
  jan16        406         416       383.0440    383.0555
  jan17        417         432       384.0853    384.1367
  jan18        433         438       385.1223    385.1281
  jan26        439         448       392.9555    393.0450
  jan27        449         452       394.0555    394.0590
  jan28        453         466       395.0101    395.0678
More information can be found on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's (http://www.sio.ucsd.edu) Marine Meteorology Research Group Web page
For more information, please contact:

Dave Rogers
UCSD-SIO, Code 0230
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
8605 La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0230
USA

email: drogers@ucsd.edu
Phone: (619) 534-6412
FAX: (619) 534-0704

or Yolande Serra, Research Associate
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington, Box 351640
Seattle, WA 98195-1640
USA

email: serra@atmos.washington.edu
tel: (206) 685-1851
FAX: (206) 543-0308

Return to Aircraft Data Overview
Return to TOGA COARE Data User's Guide Table of Contents
Return to the COARE Homepage