GCIP/ESOP-97 WSI NIDS Radar Data
     
     
     1.0  General Description
     
          The GCIP/ESOP-97 WSI NIDS Radar Data Set contains several
     WSR-88D Level III products that were archived from the Weather
     Systems International (WSI) NEXRAD (now WSR-88D) Information
     Dissemination Service (NIDS) datastream during the Global Energy
     and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-scale 
     International Project (GCIP) Enhanced Seasonal Observing Period
     - 1997 (ESOP-97).  This experiment was conducted in the area 
     37 - 50 North Latitude and 85 - 99 West Longitude during the
     time period 1 October 1996 - 31 May 1997.
     
     2.0  Detailed Data Description
     
          This dataset contains base reflectivity and velocity at 0.5
     and 1.5 degrees (the next two higher tilts are also available for
     a portion of the ESOP-97 period), composite reflectitivity, and 
     Vertical Azimuth Display (VAD) wind profiles from five sites.  
     The sites are listed below.

     2.1  Station List for WSI NIDS Products

          ID    Site               ST       LAT       LON     ELEV 
          ---------------------------------------------------------      
          KDMX  Des Moines         IA     41.7314  -93.7228   333.7
          KDVN  Davenport          IA     41.6117  -90.5808   259.5
          KLOT  Chicago            IL     41.6047  -88.0847   231.8
          KMPX  Minneapolis        MN     44.8489  -93.5656   323.0
          KMKX  Milwaukee          WI     42.9678  -88.5506   311.7

     2.2  Data Remarks

          This dataset is contained on one exabyte tape per week.  This tape
     contains one UNIX tar file for each UTC day on the tape.  

           The structure inside of each tar file is the same.  Each tar file
     contains one directory per station (see abbreviations above).  Each station
     directory contains on subdirectory per product. These directories are
     named as follows:

                BREF1			Base Reflectivity at 0.5 degree
                BREF2			Base Reflectivity at 1.5 degrees
                BREF3                   Base Reflectivity at next tilt
                BREF4                   Base Reflectivity at next tilt
                VEL1			Velocity at 0.5 degree
                VEL2			Velocity at 1.5 degrees
                VEL3                    Velocity at next tilt  
                VEL4                    Velocity at next tilt  
                CREF			Composite Reflectivity
		STAT			Radar status messages
		VAD			Vertical Azimuth Display

     Within each directory, the filename for each file is composed as
     follows:

			YYYYMMDD_hhmm_PPPPP.SSS

     Where:

		YYYY is the year of observation
		MM is the month of observation
		hh is the hour of observation
		mm is the minute of observation
		PPPPP is the product abbreviation
		SSS is the  station id (without K).


     Each individual file is in WSI NIDS format.
     
     
     3.0  Quality Control Processing
     
          No additional quality control was performed on
     the data by the UCAR/JOSS.  There are some gaps in the
     data due to loss of the real-time data feed.