Clouds, Water Vapour and Climate (CWVC)

Introduction

The Clouds, Water Vapour and Climate (CWVC) Programme was a five-year NERC thematic research programme. The Clouds, Water Vapour and Climate (CWVC) programme looked at what controls clouds, and how they influence our climate. Its overall aim was to improve our understanding of the physical processes responsible for the distribution of humidity and clouds and of their influences on climate. The programme also investigated the structure of clouds, so they can be represented accurately in global climate models, helping quantify their effects on our current climate and climate change. Projects were selected for funding through three rounds of awards, in January 1999, December 2000 and September 2001. A summary of the CWVC results and findings is available for information.

Availability of data

CWVC data submitted to the BADC include

The Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar (CAMRa) data set (Projects GST/02/2316 and 2874).
The HITRAN water vapour absorption data set (Project GST/02/2871).
The EMERALD I and EMERALD II campaigns data sets (Projects GST/02/2881 & NER/T/S/2001/201).
The Global Retrieval of ATSR cloud Parameters and Evaluation (GRAPE) data set (Project NER/T/S/2001/205)

CWVC-FAAM Campaign

The CWVC Project GST/02/2874 ("The Microphysical and radiative properties of mixed phase clouds") lead by Professor Tom Choularton, and Project GST/02/2879 ("Characterising particle size, shape and distribution in ice and mixed-phase clouds") led by Paul Kaye, are currently making use of the FAAM Bae-146 aircraft.

The project GST/02/2874 will investigate the glaciation processes in mixed phase clouds at a range of temperatures using a combination of Radar, LIDAR and insitu aircraft measurements.

The project GST/02/2879 developed SID2 (Small Ice Detector 2) to not simply discriminate between ice crystals and droplets, but rather the shape classification of diverse ice crystal habits and their spatial distribution mapping within ice and mixed-phase clouds.

The data collected onboard the FAAM Bae-146 aircraft during the CWVC campaign will include both core and non-core data (for a definition of core data, please see the document on FAAM instruments). Access restrictions are detailed in the "Access to data and software" section below.

Access to data and software

Access to CWVC data is now public and available online. Data and software supplied to the BADC by the various projects are stored in the BADC CWVC archive.

FAAM-CWVC campaign - Mixed Phase Clouds project:

Access to the FAAM Bae-146 non-core data is now public.
Authorised users of the processed Bae-146 core data include everyone. If you would like to access these data, please follow the access to FAAM Processed core data instructions online. Access is granted automatically once you have agreed online with the FAAM Conditions of Use.
Access to raw Bae-146 core data is restricted to the FAAM staff. If you are a FAAM instrument operator and would like to access these data, please follow the access to raw FAAM core data instructions online.

Data and metadata format

Accepted CWVC file formats are NetCDF (binary) and NASA Ames (ASCII). HITRAN is also used for spectroscopic data. GRAPE data files are in HDF format. NASA Ames metadata are included in the data files and the metadata standards are documented with the data format. NetCDF metadata data must comply with the CF conventions as documented in the BADC pages, which are based on the original NetCDF Climate and Forecast Metadata Convention by Eaton et al., 2001.

Data, software and metadata submission

If you are a data provider, please read the submission instructions before using the BADC data file uploader.

NOTE: File names for the FAAM-CWVC campaign - Mixed Phase Clouds project must follow the FAAM File Name Convention.

Associated data sets

ISCCP data
The BADC hosts cloud products from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP). These data include the following three data sets.
- ISCCP D1.
- ISCCP D2.
- ISCCP C2 (on CD).
ISCCP data are of public access but users are requested to acknowledge the data provider.
CLAUS data from the Cloud Archive User Service.
CWAVE data from the Cloud and Water Vapour Experiment for Model Comparisons at STFC Chilbolton.
MERIS data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Instrument (MERIS), one of the ten instruments onboard ENVISAT.
SAGE II data (version 6.2) from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS).
SAGE III data (version 3) from the Meteor-3M spacecraft

Documentation

List of projects funded under the CWVC programme.
CWVC Data Protocol.
CWVC Data Management Plan (Word document).
Metadata standards for NetCDF files, by Eaton et al., 2001.
The paper by R J Hogan et al (2002, Q J R Meteorol Soc 128 451-476)
Properties of embedded convection in warm-fronted mixed-phase cloud from aircraft and polarimetric radar is available as a pdf file.

Services

BADC File Uploader.
Help on metadata for files is available.
Help on NetCDF, HITRAN, NASA Ames formats.
NetCDF format checker is available.
NASA Ames format checker is available.

Links to further information

The programme science plan, news and announcements of opportunities are available from the CWVC Web page at NERC.

The Radar Group at the University of Reading have CWVC Project information about Met Office C-130 aircraft flights over Chilbolton.

Who to contact

The Programme Science Co-ordinator is Dr. Keith Bower (UMIST, Manchester).
The Programme Administrator is Dr Sally Palmer (NERC, Swindon).
A list of project investigators is available.

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