Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/gpmcmmc3e
gpmcmmc3e·v1·dataset

Aircraft measurements of cloud particles (MC3E field campaign)

GPM GROUND VALIDATION UND CITATION CLOUD MICROPHYSICS MC3E V1
atmosphere NASA GHRC_DAAC Level 2 ASCIIBinary
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed in-flight measurements of what is inside clouds, including the size and type of cloud particles, along with atmospheric conditions, aerosols, winds, and turbulence.

How it's made. Collected by instruments aboard a University of North Dakota research aircraft that flew through clouds over Oklahoma during the spring 2011 MC3E field campaign.

How & where you'd use it. Used to check and improve satellite rainfall estimates and weather models by providing real, up-close measurements of cloud and precipitation processes for comparison.

What's measured

Atmosphere › Atmospheric Winds › Wind Dynamics › TurbulenceSpectral/Engineering › Platform Characteristics › Attitude CharacteristicsAtmosphere › Clouds › Cloud Microphysics › Cloud Droplet Concentration/SizeAtmosphere › Atmospheric Water Vapor › Water Vapor Indicators › Dew Point TemperatureAtmosphere › Clouds › Cloud Microphysics › Cloud Liquid Water/Ice

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2011-04-22 → 2011-06-02
  • Measured byUND CITATION II (CDP, CPI PROBES, HVPS, INS, LASER HYGROMETERS, PARTICLE SPECTROMETERS, PMS 2D-C PROBE, PMS KING PROBE, ROSEMOUNT ICING DETECTOR, UHSAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-99.1654, 34.3247, -95.2302, 40.944
  • FormatsASCII, Binary
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The GPM Ground Validation UND Citation Cloud Microphysics MC3E dataset was collected during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), which took place in central Oklahoma during the April-June 2011 period. The experiment was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation (GV) program. The University of North Dakota (UND) Cessna Citation aircraft, an in-situ platform for the MC3E campaign, carried a suite of instruments for measurements of cloud microphysics, state of the atmosphere parameters, aerosols, three-dimensional winds and turbulence. The Citation flew 15 data missions, which totaled 42.6 flight hours. The data are stored as a separate file for each flight. Raw data files for each cloud instrument are also archived to allow investigators to use their own processing software. Particle size spectra for the imaging probes were processed by NCAR and are archived and distributed as a separate dataset (Particle probes).

Get the data

gpmcmmc3e_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="gpmcmmc3e",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GHRC_DAAC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.