DOCUMENTATION FOR THE DATA COLLECTED IN VORTEX2 BY THE NSSL MOBILE MESONET 
(OPERATED IN COLLABORATION WITH PSU) AND STRAKA MOBILE MESONET
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Each file contains the mobile mesonet data for a specific vehicle for one 
day.  Files ending in .qcd have been qcd.

Mobile mesonet data recorded by the NSSL-PSU mobile mesonet (vehicle 
ID's P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P7) and Straka mobile mesonet (P8) are 
formatted as follows:

id time lat lon Tfast Tslow RH p dir spd qc1 qc2 qc3 qc4

id: 2-character vehicle ID
time: UTC time in decimal format
lat: latitude in decimal format
lon: longitude in decimal format
Tfast: fast-response temperature in Celsius
Tslow: slow-response temperature in Celsius (the response is slowed 
       because the sensor is located with the RH probe inside a trapped 
       volume enclosed by a microporous membrane that keeps the RH probe 
       from being contaminated by pollutants)
RH: relative humidity (%)
p: pressure in millibars
dir: wind direction in degrees
spd: wind speed in m/s
qc1: set to 1 if there's a data logger problem (possible radio frequency 
     interference)
qc2: set to 1 if wind data are contaminated by vehicle acceleration
qc3: set to 1 if something in the data didn't pass an insanity check
qc4: set to 1 if the vehicle is stationary, in which case temperature and 
     RH data might be suspect owing to insufficient aspiration.


Also included are images showing the approximate storm-relative mobile 
mesonet vehicle locations. Each image corresponds to a 
WSR-88D reflectivity scan, with vehicle tracks over a 10-min period centered 
on the time that the radar image was obtained.  The vehicle tracks are 
approximate because a long-term average for the storm motion was used.  The 
tracks ought to be accurate enough for one to characterize the quality of 
sampling within the storms. 

For more information, contact Paul Markowski (pmarkowski@psu.edu) or Yvette 
Richardson (yrichardson@psu.edu).  Also see 

Straka, J.M., E.N. Rasmussen, and S.E. Fredrickson, 1996:  A mobile 
mesonet for finescale meteorological observations.  Journal of 
Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 13, 921-936.


Notes: Tfast in 2009 was obtained from a temperature probe housed inside the
"J tube" atop the mobile mesonet vehicles.  It was found that these data were
questionable owing to insufficient aspiration when the vehicles were
stationary, which is why the qc4 flag was used to flag data collected while
stationary.  In 2010, Tfast was obtained from a temperature probe housed
inside a newly designed "U tube" (J tube data also were collect in 2010).  It
was found that these measurements were reliable even when vehicles were
stationary (the qc4 flag is still present in the 2010 data files, however, in
order to use consistent formatting in both 2009 and 2010).  Those interested
in learning more about the U tube should contact its designer, Sean Waugh
(Sean.Waugh@noaa.gov).  Those interested in obtaining J tube data for 2010
should contact either Paul Markowski or Yvette Richardson (their email
addresses are shown above).