NCDC: NOAA WP-3 FLIGHT LEVEL DATA

NOAA WP3D AIRCRAFT - FLIGHT-LEVEL DATA

D. Jorgensen (NOAA/NSSL, USA)

Announced availability: 1 June 1993

Data Access

NOAA WP3D flight-level data are available via anonymous FTP from mrd3.mmm.ucar.edu in subdirectory /pub/TOGA-COARE/p3data.

Background

During the four-month field phase of TOGA COARE, the two NOAA WP3Ds (P3s) operated out of Honiara in the Solomon Islands conducting 22 and 23 individual sorties for a total of 374 flight hours. Missions were conducted over a wide spectrum of weather from near "clear sky" to highly disturbed. Nearly 80% of the flight sorties were within the Intensive Flux Array (IFA); however, except for a three-day period from 12 to 15 December 1992, most of the convectively active missions were outside this region.

The majority of the missions were a mix of boundary layer and convective flight patterns depending upon the weather. Prior to mid-February, most of the convective patterns were at night, which precluded the collection of a large amount of boundary layer data. After mid-February, the convective missions were conducted during daylight hours so boundary layer and Doppler data were collected simultaneously.

The WPD3 flight-level in-situ data, which are gathered by standard aircraft instrumentation, consist of measurements collected along the flight track of parameters such as air temperature, dew point temperature, position, and altitude, at a 1-sec data rate. The basic sensors and measured parameters include:

 Parameter Instrument

Latitude, longitude             Two INE and one GPS system
Altitude above sea surface      APN 232 and APN 159 radar altimeters
Aircraft attitude               static, dynamic, sideslip pressure sensors
Horiz and vert accelerations    Two Inertial Navigation Units
Air temperature                 Two Rosemount probes
Dew point temperature           Cooled mirror
Radiometer air temperature      CO2 radiometer
Sea surface temperature         Barnes PRT-5
Up/down radiation               Eppley pyrohel
Electric field                  DRI field mills (up/down/side)
Cloud water content             Johnson-William's hot wire

Data File Information

The in-situ data were recorded to 9-track 1600 bpi magnetic tapes ("slow tapes") in a NOAA/Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) internal binary format. The data were then processed at NOAA's AOC in Tampa, FL following tower and intercomparison flybys to apply the most correct calibrations to the sensors. The data were converted to a standard format 9-track 1600 bpi magnetic tape and archived at NOAA/NSSL in Boulder, CO. The processing was completed for all TOGA COARE flights as of 20 August 1993.

A selected subset of these data has been converted to ASCII records and stored as compressed files on the anonymous FTP account of mrd3.mmm.ucar.edu (128.117.88.200). The files are organized by mission in the subdirectory /pub/TOGA-COARE/p3data using the flight ID as the file name. Additional parameters also exist which have not been included in these files due to space constraints. Anyone desiring additional parameters should contact John Daugherty and special files or tapes can be created.

File Format

The format of the data records and the parameters included are as follows:

The first record is a header containing the flight ID and aircraft number (e.g. 930222 42). The remaining records are data records of 136 characters containing the following data:

Columns  Format  Units         Descriptor
  1-2      I2    UTC           Hour
  3-4      I2    UTC           Minute
  5-6      I2    UTC           Second
  7-10     F4.0  deg   sxx.    Latitude (whole degrees)
  11-15    F5.1  deg   sxx.x   Latitude (minutes and tenths of minutes)
  16-20    F5.0  deg   sxxx.   Longitude (whole degrees)
  21-25    F5.1  deg   sxx.x   Longitude (minutes and tenths of minutes)
  26-31    F6.1  mb    xxxx.x  Static pressure
  32-36    F5.1  C     sxx.x   Ambient temperature
  37-41    F5.1  C     sxx.x   Downward-looking CO2 radiometer
  42-46    F5.1  C     sxx.s   Side-looking CO2 radiometer
  47-51    F5.1  m/s   xxx.x   Ground speed
  52-56    F5.1  m/s   xxx.x   True airspeed
  57-61    F5.1  deg   xxx.x   Track angle (North relative)
  62-66    F5.1  deg   xxx.x   Heading angle (North relative)
  67-71    F5.1  deg   sxx.x   Pitch angle (positive up)
  72-76    F5.1  deg   sxx.x   Roll angle (positive right wing down)
  77-81    F5.1  g/m3  xxx.x   J-W cloud liquid water
  82-86    F5.1  C     sxx.x   Dew point temperature
  87-91    F5.1  C     sxx.x   Upward-looking radiometer
  92-96    F5.0  m     xxxx.   Geopotential altitude
  97-101   F5.0  m     xxxx.   Pressure altitude
  102-106  F5.1  m/s   xxx.x   Wind speed
  107-111  F5.1  deg   xxx.x   Wind direction
  112-116  F5.1  m/s2  sxx.x   INE #1 vertical accelerometer
  117-121  F5.1  m/s2  sxx.x   INE #2 vertical accelerometer
  122-126  F5.1  m/s   sxx.x   Vertical ground speed
  127-131  F5.1  m/s   sxx.x   Vertical air speed
  132-136  F5.1  m/s   sxx.x   Vertical wind

  Notes:
      1 - By convention latitude is negative in the southern hemisphere
          and longitude is negative in the western hemisphere
      2 - The last three parameters (vertical ground speed, airspeed,
          and wind) are calculated using the algorithm documented in
          Jorgensen and LeMone (1989).
      3 - The navigation information (position and ground speed) use a
          combination of GPS and INE to produce a "best" track.
      4 - There is no file of this type available for 930201I due to a
          tape drive malfunction during the flight.

Data Example

921102 42 NOAA/NSSL Processed TOGA/COARE P-3 Flight Level Data
211112  -9 -25-40.596  160   3  4.6881009.3 34.0 35.2 29.6   0.107  1.3 37.037241.8 -0.6 -0.2  0.0 23.8  2.2    0   33  1.352239.512  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
211113  -9 -25-40.593  160   3  4.6901009.4 34.0 35.2 29.6   0.100  1.1 27.617241.8 -0.6 -0.2  0.0 23.8  2.2    0   32  1.201240.631  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
211114  -9 -25-40.590  160   3  4.6911009.2 34.0 35.2 29.6   0.100  2.9 26.537241.8 -0.6 -0.2  0.0 23.8  2.2    0   34  2.986242.288  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0

A sample FORTRAN program is given to show how the data are retrieved.

For more information, please contact:

Dave Jorgensen
NOAA/NSSL/MRD
c/o NCAR/MMM
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
USA

email: davej@mrd3.mmm.ucar.edu
Phone: (303) 497-6246
FAX: (303) 497-6930

John Daugherty
NCAR/MMM
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
USA

email: johnd@mrd3.mmm.ucar.edu
Phone: (303) 497-6875
FAX: (303) 497-6930

Reference

Jorgensen D. and M. LeMone, 1989: JAS, V. 46, 6, 621-640.

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