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Precipitation and Microphysics Analysis in Support of NAME

Project Description

In support of the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME), the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory and Environmental Technology Laboratory deployed several radar profilers and surface based instruments to observe the vertical structure of the precipitation that passed directly over the profiler site. This web page includes animations, analysis, and ASCII data of the precipitation events observed during the 2-month campaign from 31 July through 18 September 2004.

Profiler Site located at Estacion Obispo, MX (24.28 N, 107.16 W)

The profiler site was located near the city of Estacion Obispo, in the state of Sanora, on the west coast of Mexico. The profiler was located about 100 km north of Mazatlan, and about 45 km north of the SPOL scanning radar located near La Cruz. The map below shows the location of the profiler site relative to Mazatlan and the SPOL scanning radar.
Map Showing Profiler and SPOL

The profiler site included the following instruments:

Instruments Deployed at Estacion Obispo Profiler Site
Instrument Purpose Funding Agency
S-Band (2875-MHz) Vertically Pointing Profiler Vertical structure of precipitation & microphysics NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program
UHF (449-MHz) Vertical Air Motion Profiler Estimate the vertical air motion during precipitation NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program
UHF (915-MHz) Boundary Layer Wind Profiler Estimate the horizontal winds up to ~5 km NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program
Cloud Boundary Ceilometer Estimate the altitude of cloud base NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program
Surface Joss-Waldvogel Disdrometer Estimate the surface rain drop size distribution NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program
10-m Meteorological Tower
 Meteorological measurements at 2-m & 10-m
 NOAA OGP-PACS/GAPP Program

Photos of the instruments deployed at the Estacion Obispo site are show here.

Observations Made From July to September 2004

The following QuickTime animations show daily images collected by each instrument. These animations provide a quicklook view of the observations. (You will need the QuickTime Plugin installed on your browser.  It is helpful to use your arrow keys to control the animations after they automatically start in your browser.)

S-Band (2875-MHz) Vertically Pointing Profiler - Daily Observations
(Absolute calibration has not been finalized. The following animations are NOT calibrated.)


UHF (449-MHz) Vertical Air Motion Profiler - Daily Observations
(Absolute calibration has not been finalized. The following animations are NOT calibrated.)

UHF (915-MHz) Boundary Layer Wind Profiler - Daily Observations
(Absolute calibration has not been finalized. The following animations are NOT calibrated.) Ceilometer - Daily Observations Surface Meteorological Observations - Daily Observations
Surface Joss-Waldvogel Disdrometer Observations - Hourly Observations
(The disdrometer was not functioning correctly during the experiment.  The manufacturer is evaluating the data to determine if a correction factor can be determined.)


Detailed Observations of Precipitation Events

There were 23 rain events observed by the S-band profiler during the NAME campaign.  The following QuickTime animations show the observations made by the different instruments during these 23 rain events.  Note that the time scale on the figures changes for each rain event.
 


The following Table lists the times and features of the 23 rain events.
Event # Start Date Start Hr End Date End Hr Description S-Band Image
#1 30 July 23 31 July 04 5 hr- Analysis including SPOL calibration of S-band Profiler
 Cloud Mode
#2 31 July 21 1 August 05 16 hr- Cloud Mode
#3 2 August 05 2 August 12 7 hr- Cloud Mode
#4 3 August 16 3 August 22 6 hr- Cloud Mode
#5 4 August 02 4 August 09 7 hr- Cloud Mode
#6 5 August 05 5 August 13 8 hr- Cloud Mode
#7 5 August 19 6 August 11 16 hr- Cloud Mode
#8 8 August 02 8 August 07 5 hr- Cloud Mode
#9 13 August 03 13 August 10 7 hr- Power Failure at hour 10 Cloud Mode
#10 17 August 23 18 August 10 11 hr- Cloud Mode
#11 22 August 10 22 August 14 3 hr- Cloud Mode
#12 24 August 06 24 August 11 5 hr- Cloud Mode
#13 24 August 22 25 August 00 2 hr- Cloud Mode
#14 1 September 07 1 September 16 9 hr- Cloud Mode
#15 4 September 05 4 September 07 2 hr- Cloud Mode
#16 5 September 17 5 September 23 6 hr- Cloud Mode
#17 6 September 22 7 September 06 8 hr- Cloud Mode
#18 7 September 07 8 September 09 2 hr- Cloud Mode
#19 9 September 09 9 September 14 5 hr- Cloud Mode
#20 12 September 13 13 September 00 11 hr- Cloud Mode
#21 16 September 16 17 September 01 9 hr- Cloud Mode
#22 17 September 09 17 September 16 7 hr- Cloud Mode
#23 18 September 06 18 September 21 15 hr- Cloud Mode


ASCII Data Files

ASCII data files will be placed here when the quality control process is complete.

Contact Christopher.R.Williams @ noaa.gov with questions about page content, web links, and technical questions.
NOAA ETL/AL NAME Precipitation Project Home Page (you are here)
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