DYCOMS-II Upper Air:  915 MHz Profiler Goleta and Point Loma,
                      California Wind Profile Data (netCDF)


1.0  General Information


The 915 MHz Profiler Goleta and Point Loma, California Wind 
Profile Data (netCDF) is one of several upper air data sets 
collected as part of the Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine 
Stratocumulus Phase II: Entrainment Studies (DYCOMS-II) 
project by the University Corporation for Atmospheric 
Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS).
This data set include hourly wind component vertical profiles.
There is one file per hour including vertical profiles from
a number of sites (only Goleta and Point Loma are discussed
here).  The data set covers the period from 7-28 July 2001.
The data were acquired from the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Forecast Systems Laboratory
(FSL) (http://oak.fsl.noaa.gov/blp/displays/blpus.html).
All data are in netCDF format.


2.0  Data Contact


Scot Loehrer (loehrer@ucar.edu)


3.0  Data and Format Information


3.1  Data Information

Boundary layer profilers (BLP) are small, relatively low-cost UHF 
Doppler radars used primarily to measure vertical profiles of 
horizontal winds. The BLPs have a minimum range of about 100 m 
above ground level (AGL), with range resolutions selectable from 
60 m to 400 m. Depending on the configuration of the radar, and 
the atmospheric conditions, BLPs are capable of measuring wind up 
to about 3 km AGL. With the addition of an optional Radio 
Acoustic Sounding System (RASS), virtual temperature profiles up 
to about 1 km can also be obtained. 

The winds displayed at each height are averaged over the 
preceding hour,  e.g., subhourly data processed between 1600-1700
UTC would be averaged and displayed with the time stamp of 1700 
UTC. The displayed winds have all "passed" our single-station 
quality control requirements (continuity in height and time, and
a requirement that good vertical beam data is present) and 
typically represent high quality data. RASS temperatures follow 
the same time stamp convention and have also passed 
single-station quality control.

3.2  Format Information

These data are in netCDF format.  NetCDF (network Common Data 
Form) is an interface for array-oriented data access and a 
library that provides an implementation of the interface. The 
netCDF library also defines a machine-independent format for 
representing scientific data. Together, the interface, library,
and format support the creation, access, and sharing of scientific
data.  The netCDF software was developed at the Unidata Program 
Center in Boulder, Colorado. The freely available source can be
obtained from Unidata.  For further information on netCDF and
software to display or manipulate netCDF files see:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/index.html

3.3  Station List

Station Name  State    ID     Lat      Lon     Elev (m)
--------------------------------------------------------
Goleta         CA    GLACA   34.43   -119.85       3 
Point Loma     CA    PTLCA   32.70   -117.25      23

The Goleta profiler and RASS is operated by NOAA/Environmental
Technology Laboratory.  The Point Loma profiler and RASS is 
operated by the San Diego Air Pollution Control District.


4.0  Quality Control Procedures


     UCAR/JOSS conducted no quality checks on these data.


5.0  File Naming Convention


The file names are structured as follows:

profiler_yyyymmddhh_wind.cdf

Where profiler is the data type
      yyyy is the four digit year
      mm is the two digit month
      dd is the two digit day
      hh is the hour (UTC)
      wind is the name of the data set


6.0  References


None