Title: AERIoe thermodynamic retrievals from the AERI in the CLAMPS facility (MP-1)
Author: Dave Turner, NOAA (dave.turner@noaa.gov)
Date: 20 June 2016

The AERIoe algorithm retrieves profiles of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio, together with cloud properties for a single-layer cloud (i.e., LWP, effective radius), from AERI-observed infrared radiance spectrum.  The method is a physical-iterative retrieval that uses the optimal estimation framework, so a full error covariance of the solution is provided for each retrieval. The information content in the AERI observations on the thermodynamic profiles is primarily concentrated in the lowest 3 km or up to cloud base; the retrieved data should not be used above that level (or used with caution).

Turner, D.D., and U. Loehnert, 2014: Information content and uncertainties in thermodynamic profiles and liquid cloud properties retrieved from the ground-based Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI). J. Appl. Meteor. Clim., 53, 752-771, doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-13-0126.1

This processing used Release_2_2 of the AERIoe retrieval code.

The data were created to characterize the evolution of the planetary boundary layer and boundary layer clouds.  This dataset was collected by the CLAMPS-1 facility, which was the PECAN mobile PISA #1 site.  The AERIoe retrieval was run at 2-minute resolution, but retrievals can be performed at the maximum temporal resolution of the AERI instrument (order 30 s) -- if this higher temporal resolution is desired, please contact Dave Turner.

The retrieval uses an optimal estimation framework, so a full error covariance matrix of each solution is included in the output file.  The 1-sigma uncertainty of each retrieved variable, which is derived from the error covariance matrix, is included for each scientific field and is named "sigma_X", where "X" is the name of the scientific field (e.g., 'temperature').  We believe that all retrievals in this file have good data quality (i.e., ignore the "qc_flag" field).

See the file README.clamps_deployments.txt for information on the location of the CLAMPS facility for each IOP, as well as other metadata.