THAW - Temperature, Humidity and Winds near the Tropopause

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

go to DATA ARCHIVE

Introduction

THAW is a proposal for flights in the tropopause region, its scientific objectives are to:
• Measure fine-scale vertical temperature structure in the vicinity of the tropopause, to test a model for VHF radar reflection being developed at Manchester.
• Compare wind and turbulence measurements with the MST radar, to better enable quantitative derivation of turbulence parameters from the radar echo spectra.
• Characterise the performance of the Buck research CR-2 hygrometer in the upper troposphere, with special emphasis on measuring supersaturation in the vicinity of the cirrus clouds.

Availability of data

Data from THAW will be stored and available through the THAW archive directory. This will include links to the relevant FAAM flights stored in the FAAM archive and links to appropriate MST data in the MST archive, as well as any data collected by other instruments. The data can be be viewed and downloaded by authorised users (see below). FAAM data includes both core and non-core data (for a definition of core data, see the document on FAAM Instruments).

Access to data

Access to THAW FAAM data is determined by the THAW Conditions of Use,

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 THAW 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 THAW data.

If you are an THAW participant and wish to access the THAW FAAM 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 THAW data — you will be asked to abide by the THAW Conditions of Use and the FAAM Conditions of Use

Whilst convenient links are provided to the MST data associated with the THAW flights, the standard MST conditions of use apply and applications should be made in the usual way. Please see the MST radar web page for more details and APPLY for access to MST radar data.

Data format, File names and Instructions to data providers

THAW 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/thaw. You will need your BADC user name and password and have applied and been granted access to THAW data as directed above.

Documentation

THAW 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,[Forster P.]. FAAM - Temperature, Humidity and Winds near the Tropopause (THAW), [Internet]. British Atmospheric Data Centre, 2009-, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/thaw/.

Who to contact

The THAW Principal Investigators are Prof. Geraint Vaghan (NCAS University of Manchester).
Any query regarding the data should be sent to the BADC help desk.

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