CONSTRAIN - Cold Cloud Microphysical Parametrization Studies

CONSTRAIN Participants APPLY for access
(*See below for conditions)

go to DATA ARCHIVE

Introduction

The main issues are the pristine ice number concentration, snow evolution leading to surface precipitation, mixed-phase and cold cloud length scales. The main goals in order of priority are
- to provide statistical datasets to act as a critical holistic test of three phase microphysics as RICO did for warm cloud microphysics (e.g. cold air outbreak). - to test whether the background aerosol concentration active as ice nuclei can be used to predict the pristine ice concentration in cases where there is limited ice multiplication.
- to test detailed microphysical assumptions in model, which include capacitance, aggregation efficiency vs temperature (conversion rate from 'ice' to 'snow' categories), mass-dimension relations and area-dimension relations (these combine to give fall-speed).
- To investigate small ice (sub 100 microns) concentration controversy.

The project aims to conduct studies of water vapour, ice crystal habit, turbulence and radiative properties of contrail as it either spreads into cirrus or dissipates. Boundary conditions for LEM studies of contrail lifecycles will be delivered and Measurements of radiative forcing from spreading contrail taken for comparison to other cases. Case studies for testing later contrail cirrus parameterization in the Unified Model will be also be considered.

Availability of data

BADC will store data from the FAAM BAe-146 aircraft supplied by the CONSTRAIN project team in the BADC FAAM archive, from where they can be viewed and downloaded by authorised users (see below). These data include both core and non-core data (for a definition of core data, see the document on FAAM Instruments).

Access to data

As stated in the CONSTRAIN Conditions of Use, access to the BAe-146 data is restricted to CONSTRAIN participants :

processed core data is publicly available upon ageement with the FAAM Data Protocol (online application required).
non-core data collected on board the FAAM aircraft will be restricted to CONSTRAIN participants for 18 months after measurement, after which the data will be released to the public domain.
Access to the BAe-146 raw-core data is restricted to FAAM staff.

All users are requested to acknowledge the data providers, and NERC and the Met Office in any publication based on CONSTRAIN data.

If you are an CONSTRAIN participant and wish to access the CONSTRAIN data whilst it is restricted, please follow the guidelines below.

register as a BADC user — if you are already a registered BADC user, skip this step; if you have forgotten your BADC user ID and/or password, please contact the BADC helpdesk at badc@rl.ac.uk;
apply for access to the CONSTRAIN data — you will be asked to abide by the CONSTRAIN Conditions of Use and the FAAM Conditions of Use

Data format, File names and Instructions to data providers

CONSTRAIN data are stored in either NetCDF or NASA Ames format. File names follow the BADC file name convention.

Data file submission.
Data providers are kindly requested to follow the BADC file name convention and to format your data in NetCDF, using the CF metadata conventions. NASA Ames formatted files are also accepted.
If you wish to check that files are correctly formatted before uploading them please use the NetCDF format checker or the BADC NASA-Ames format checker.
It is important that the data be well documented. Please follow the BADC guidelines regarding the submission of metadata.

Core data and Met Office-non-core instrument data will be submitted though the usual upload routes.
Other non-core data can be submitted by FTP to ftp.badc.rl.ac.uk directory incoming/constrain. You will need your BADC user name and password and have applied and been granted access to CONSTRAIN data as directed above.

Documentation

CONSTRAIN Conditions of Use
FAAM Conditions of Use applying to processed core flight data

Services

BADC NASA-Ames file checker
BADC NetCDF file checker

Links to further information

FAAM Welcome Page at BADC
The Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) Web site

Citation

FAAM, UK Meteorological Office, Natural Environment Research Council,[Cotton R.]. FAAM - CONSTRAIN, [Internet]. British Atmospheric Data Centre, 2009-, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/constrain/.

Who to contact

The CONSTRAIN Principal Investigator is Richard Cotton (UK Met Office).
Any query regarding the data should be sent to the BADC help desk.

Home Contact Disclaimer
Last Modified: