TITLE:  NOAA Cooperative Agency Profiler (CAP) Network Data [NCAR/EOL]


CONTACTS:

Mike Barth
NOAA/ESRL/GSD

email: Michael.F.Barth@noaa.gov


1.0  DATA SET OVERVIEW


This data set contains 30-minute or hourly profiles of wind speed, wind direction
and virtual temperature from profilers around the world (including several in
California).  These are typically 915 MHz boundary layer profilers some also 
include Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS).  The data were acquired from 
NOAA/ESRL/GSD and include data from a number of agencies.  The data are in netCDF.


2.0  INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION


2.1  Instrumentation information

Information on the instrumentation is available at the CAP web site:

http://www.madis-fsl.org/cap/

2.2  Station Locations

The station locations are included in the file netCDF data files.

The stations in California and Nevada include 

ID     NAME                    Elev   Lat    Lon     Type   RASS SFC Res Org
BBBCA  BODEGA BAY CA            12   38.32 -123.07  449 MHz          60  NOAA/ETL
BBYCA  BODEGA BAY CA            12   38.32 -123.07  915 MHz RASS SFC 60  NOAA/ETL
CXECA  CALEXICO CA               0   32.70 -115.40  915 MHz          30  CARB
CCLCA  CHOWCHILLA CA            76   37.11 -120.24  915 MHz RASS SFC 60  NOAA/ETL
CCOCA  CHICO CA                 41   39.69 -121.91  915 MHz RASS SFC 60  NOAA/ETL
GLBCA  GOLETA CA                 3   34.43 -119.85  449 MHz RASS     60  NOAA/ETL
LAXCA  LOS ANGELES CA           47   33.94 -118.44  915 MHz RASS     60  SCQ
LHSCA  LOST HILLS CA            80   35.62 -119.69  915 MHz RASS SFC 60  NOAA/ETL
MMRCA  MIRAMAR CA              126   32.90 -117.10  915 MHz RASS     60  SDAPCD
MOVCA  MORENO VALLEY CA        452   33.87 -117.22  915 MHz RASS     60  SCQ
NPSCA  MONTEREY CA              51   36.69 -121.76  915 MHz RASS     30  NPS-DM
ONTCA  ONTARIO CA              280   34.06 -117.58  915 MHz RASS     60  SCQ
PPBCA  PT. PIEDRAS BLANCAS CA 	11   35.66 -121.29  915 MHz RASS     60  NOAA/ETL
PTLCA  POINT LOMA CA            23   32.70 -117.25  915 MHz RASS     60  SDAPCD
SACCA  SACRAMENTO CA             6   38.20 -121.30  915 MHz RASS     60  SMAQMD
SIMCA  SIMI VALLEY CA          283   34.30 -118.80  915 MHz RASS     15  VCAPCD
VISCA  VISALIA CA               81   36.31 -119.39  915 MHz RASS     60  SJV-APCD

where:
CARB is CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD
SCQ is SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
SDAPCD is SAN DIEGO AIR POLLUTION CONTROL DISTRICT
NPS-DM is DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY, NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
SMAQMD is SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
SJV-APCD is SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AIR POLLUTION CONTROL DISTRICT
VCAPCD is VENTURA COUNTY AIR POLLUTION CONTROL DISTRICT
NOAA/ETL is NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory now the 
    Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL) Physical Sciences
    Division (PSD)

Stations with SFC include surface meteorological observations.


3.0  DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING


NCAR/EOL conducted no processing or quality control on these data.

Information on CAP processing and quality control is available at their web
site.


4.0  DATA FORMAT AND FILE NAMING

4.1  File Naming conventions

Files have names like:

20060430_1300
where:
	2006 is the year
        04 is the month
        30 is the day of month
        1300 is the UTC time of observation

There is on file every 30 minutes that includes data for all stations with
data at that time.

4.2  Data Format
 
These data are netCDF.

For information on the netCDF format visit the netCDF page at UCAR/Unidata:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/


5.0  DATA REMARKS


6.0  REFERENCES


None.