ESOP 1995 CD-ROM Set Overview 1.0 General Description Within the overall scientific strategy of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment (GEWEX) has been initiated to study on the global scale the fast climate system mechanisms controlling radiation, clouds and rain, evaporation and fresh water storage. The GEWEX Continental-scale International Project (GCIP) initiative is the first major project under GEWEX. Descriptions of the objectives of GCIP are provided in the GCIP scientific and implementation plans (WMO, 1992; IGPO 1993, 1994a, b). The first of the GCIP Initial Data Sets (GIDS-1) was compiled as a static systems test of the GCIP data management system. GIDS-1 made use of existing experimental and operational capabilities to produce a composite observational and model-output data set which was derived from new observation and assimilation schemes. GIDS-1 contains data from the west-central Mississippi River basin with data from 1 February 1992 to 30 April 1992. Data are primarily based on the STORM-Fronts Experiment Systems Test (STORM-FEST) which was conducted from 1 February to 15 March 1992 over the central United States augmented by additional hydrological, geographical and surface characterization data. A subset of GIDS-1 data is also available on CD-ROM. The GCIP Integrated Systems Test (GIST) was the second of the GCIP Initial Data Sets to be collected prior to the start of the 5-year Enhanced Observing Period (EOP) scheduled to begin October 1995 (IGPO, 1996). GIST was essentially a GCIP pilot study to test the data collection and provide initial analyses in a significant geographic area in the Mississippi River Basin (Arkansas-Red River Basin) where significant variations in atmospheric, hydrologic, and land surface occur. In addition to the numerous operational measurements available in the Arkansas-Red River Basin, GIST coordinated with other Research programs such as the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) and the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX) to create a high spatial and temporal resolution data set. GIST data collection took place from 1 April through 31 August 1994 in the domain of 31 to 40 degrees N latitude and 91 to 107 degrees W longitude. During that period, intensive operations for VORTEX took place 1 April through 15 June 1994, and the ARM Program conducted two Intensive Observing Periods (April and July-August 1994). The Arkansas- Red River Basin is one of several intensively observed areas representing different climatic and soil hydrology regimes that will be identified throughout the GCIP Mississippi River Basin region over the course of GCIP. In addition, GIST was conducted during a hydrologically important time of year (i.e., early spring into summer snowmelt/runoff). 2.0 ESOP 1995 Objectives and Approach The purpose of compiling the ESOP 1995 data set was to create a proto- type data set that would be similar to future data sets collected during the EOP. The ESOP 1995 data set also provides a basis for the test of the existing observational networks (as well as enhanced research observations) for suitability in meeting GCIP requirements prior to the start of the EOP. This data set contains similar quality controlled surface and upper air composite data sets as required by GCIP. Further, this data set provides the observations to serve the following GCIP data analysis and modeling requirements: 1) Development and refining of algorithms and analysis techniques to obtain precipitation, cloud, moisture, radiative flux, and cloud heating fields (e.g., development of an algorithm to derive the vertical distribution of hydrometers from WSR-88D reflectivities over the GCIP domain). 2) Provision of optimal data sets for initialization and validating mesoscale model forecasts of cloud and precipitation patterns and for assessing and improving moist physics and radiation parameterizations in such models. 3) Enhancement of the closure scheme for the heating and moistening budgets of the atmosphere at the scale of a GCM grid element (roughly 100 km on a side) with estimates of all variables and processes at both this scale and the subgrid scales representative of cloud-mesoscale and global climate models. 4) Obtaining sufficient information from ground hydrology measurements (e.g., streamflow runoff, evaporation) and already existent high density coverage by rain gages to provide development and validation data sets for coupled mesoscale-hydrology models. The ESOP 1995 region has substantial gradients in soil moisture and biomass. These required measurements include 3-D thermal, wind, and moisture fields of the atmosphere, precip- itation rate, streamflow rate, soil moisture content, and radiative flux and surface energy budget measurements at commensurate scales. Determination of an effective surface temperature for calculating the sensible heat transport from the surface has been demonstrated by the first ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment to be problematic. These questions stress the need for careful interpretations of available measurements of the sensible heat flux and the development of new parameterizations. Further information on all the datasets included in ESOP 1995 can be found in IGPO 1994c. Note that this CD-ROM contains only a subset of the complete ESOP 1995 dataset. Information on access to the complete ESOP 1995 dataset is described in section 4.0. 3.0 ESOP 1995 CD-ROM The ESOP 1995 CD-ROM contains four precipitation composites, four surface composites, two hydrology datasets, National Weather Service, ARM-CART and VORTEX sounding data, NOAA 405 MHz Wind Profiler Demonstration Network (WPDN) data, and several different types of imagery. For each composite/dataset, the data, associated documentation, station information, etc. are all located in separate directories. The ESOP 1995 CD-ROM is divided into nine (9) high-level directories (i.e., docs, hydro, images, precip, prof_405, sfc_met, sounding, stn_list, and tools). Several of these high-level directories are further divided into subdirectories, depending on the nature of the data contained within that directory. Each directory contains a distinct set of data. Different composites and datasets are located in separate directories. Directory names and data file names are never more than eight prefix characters followed by three suffix characters and are compatible with personal computer name limitations. File sizes vary according to the type of data contained in the dataset or composite. The majority of the data on this CD-ROM has been compressed using the GNUZIP program, which is freely available for many different platforms. If the user does not have the ability to decode GNUZIP-compressed files, please refer to any of the description documents for compressed data. The tool required to uncompress the data is located in the /tools directory of this CD-ROM. Detailed descriptions of the data, quality control processing, etc. for each dataset are located in the /docs directory of this CD-ROM. The /stn_list directory contains the station info for the data on this ESOP 1995 CD-ROM. The user should review all associated documents for each dataset which is extracted from this CD-ROM. A brief description of the data contained in each high-level directory is given below. 3.1 Directory Structure Figure 1 - ESOP 1995 CD-ROM Directory Structure |----/docs | |____/hydro | | | |____/usgsflow | |____/usgsresv | |____/images | | | | | |____/abrfc | |____/analyses | | | | | |____/eta1000 | | |____/eta850 | | |____/eta500 | | | |____/goes_ir | |____/goes_vis | |____/goes_wv | |____/msfc | |____/nowrad | |____/vegindex | |____/precip | | | |____/15mcomp / ____| |____/abrfcmsc | |____/dlycomp | |____/hlycomp | |____/prof_405 | |____/sfc_met | | | |____/20mcomp | |____/dly_coop | |____/hlycomp | |____/sao_spec | |____/sounding | | | |____/arm_cart | |____/nws | |____/vortex | |____/ncarclss | |____/nsslmbl | |____/stn_list | |____/tools | |____/dos |____/mac |____/unix 3.1.1 /hydro This directory contains the ESOP 1995 hydrology data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS stream flow data are located in a single file. The subdirectory is /usgsflow. The file has been given a name which describes the data it contains (e.g., the USGS stream flow data file is named strmflw.gz). The reservoir data are located in a two files (i.e., resrvrcp.gz and resrvrus.gz) in the /usgsresv subdirectory. File resrvrcp contains the Co-operative Agency Month-End reservoir data, and file resrvrus contains the USGS reservoir data. The data in this directory has been compressed using the GNUZIP program. Refer to the appropriate documents in the /docs directory of this ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description of these datasets. 3.1.2 /images This directory contains the ESOP 1995 imagery data. There are eight subdirectories under this high-level directory (i.e., /abrfc, /analyses, /goes_ir, /goes_vis, /goes_wv, /msfc, /nowrad, /vegindex). The files located in each subdirectory have names that indicate the date on which the imagery is valid. Refer to the imagery documents in the /docs directory of the ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description of these datasets. The /abrfc directory contains 24-hour accumulated precipitation estimates as determined from WSR-88D radar precipitation algorithms (products known as STAGE III). The Arkansas-Red River Basin River Forecast Center (ABRFC) routinely produced composites of derived precipitation over the basin from all available radars. These Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) data files have names of the form s3YYMMDD.gif, where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, and DD is the UTC day that the imagery are valid. An example for ABRFC imagery for 2 April 1995 is s3950402.gif. The /analyses directory contains Eta Model 1000mb, 850mb and 500mb imagery. Plots created by the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) of the Eta Model output from the National Meteorological Center (NMC) were acquired and converted to GIF images by the Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS). The Eta Model 1000mb, Eta 850mb, and Eta 500mb imagery are located in the /eta1000, /eta850, and /eta500 subdirectories, respectively, under the /analyses directory. These Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) data files have names of the form saYYMMDD.gif for the 1000mb imagery and YYMMDD.gif for the 500mb and 850mb imagery. YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, and DD is the UTC day that the imagery are valid. An example for Eta 500mb imagery for 2 April 1995 is 950402.gif. The /goes_ir subdirectory contains GOES-8 infrared imagery (4 Km resolution). This subdirectory contains GIF files for the complete ESOP 1995time period (1 April 1995 through 30 September 1995), nominally at 1200 UTC daily or closest available time. Each GIF file has a name of the form YYMMDD.gif, where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, and DD is the UTC day. An example for 24 May 1995 would be 950524.gif. The /goes_vis subdirectory contains GOES-8 visible imagery (2 Km resolution). This subdirectory contains GIF files for the complete ESOP 1995 time period (1 April 1995 through 30 September 1995), nominally at 2100 UTC daily or closest available time. Each GIF file has a name of the form YYMMDDHH.gif, where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, DD is the UTC day, and HH is the UTC hour. An example for 24 May 1995 2100 hours would be 95052421.gif. The /goes_wv subdirectory contains GOES-8 water vapor imagery (8 Km resolution). This subdirectory contains GIF files for the complete ESOP 1995 time period (1 April 1995 through 30 September 1995), nominally at 1200 UTC daily or closest available time. Each GIF file has a name of the form YYMMDDHH.gif, where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, DD is the UTC day, and HH is the UTC hour. An example for 24 May 1995 1200 hours would be 95052412.gif. The /msfc subdirectory contains the United States Radar Precipitation Rate imagery produced by NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). This subdirectory contains GIF files for the complete ESOP 1995 time period (1 April 1995 through 30 September 1995), nominally at 1200 UTC daily or the closest available time. Each GIF file is named MMDDHHTT.gif, where MM is the UTC month, DD is the UTC day, HH is the UTC hour, and TT is the UTC minutes. An example for 24 May 1995 1200 hours would be 05241200.gif. The /nowrad subdirectory contains WSI, Inc. NOWRAD National radar reflectivity composite imagery (8 Km resolution). This subdirectory contains GIF files for the complete ESOP 1995 time period (1 April 1995 through 30 September 1995), nominally at 2300 UTC daily or the closest available time. Each GIF file is named YYMMDDHH.gif, where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, DD is the UTC day and HH is the UTC hour. An example for 24 May 1995 1200 hours would be 95052423.gif. The /vegindex subdirectory contains bi-weekly Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) derived vegetation index imagery for April through September of 1995. Each GIF file is named YYMMDD.gif where YY is the UTC year and MM is the UTC month, and DD is the first UTC day of the 2 week period that the image is valid. An example for the first bi-weekly image of April 1995 would be 950401.gif. 3.1.3 /precip This directory contains the ESOP 1995 in-situ precipitation data. The data in this directory subdirectories has been compressed using the GNUZIP program. Refer to either the 15-minute, ABRFC miscellaneous, daily, or hourly precipitation dataset documents in the /docs directory of the ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description. The 15-minute and hourly precipitation composites in daily files are located in the /15mcomp and /hlycomp subdirectories, respectively. These files are named YYMMDD.gz where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, and DD is the UTC day that the data are valid. For example, the file for 20 May 1995 would be named 950520.gz. The daily precipitation composite in monthly files are located in the /dlycomp subdirectory. The files in this area are named YYMM.gz where YY is the UTC year and MM is the UTC month that the data are valid. An example for April 1995 would be 9504.gz. The ABRFC miscellaneous precipitation data are located in the /abrfcmsc subdirectory. These files are named YYMMDD.gz where YY is the UTC year, MM is the UTC month, and DD is the UTC day that the data are valid. For example, the file for 24 August 1995 would be named 950824.gz. 3.1.4 /prof_405 This directory contains the ESOP 1995 405 MHz Wind Profiler data, from the NOAA Profiler Network (NPN). The files in this directory are named XXXMMw60.gz, where XXX is the three letter identifier for the reporting station and MM is the UTC month that the data are valid. An example for station BLM for April would be blm04w60.gz. The data in this directory have been compressed using the GNUZIP program. Refer to the appropriate composite and dataset documentation in the /docs directory of the ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description. 3.1.5 /sfc_met This directory contains the ESOP 1995 surface meteorological data. The /sfc_met directory contains four subdirectories. The data in these subdirectories have been compressed using the GNUZIP program. Refer to the appropriate composite and dataset documentation in the /docs directory of this ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description. The ESOP 1995 20 Minute Surface Composite in daily files is located in the /20mcomp subdirectory. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Summary of the Day Co-operative Observer dataset is located in the /dly_coop subdirectory. The ESOP 1995 Hourly Surface Composite in daily files is located in the /hlycomp subdirectory. The NCDC Surface Aviation Observation (SAO) "Specials" dataset in daily files is located in the /sao_spec subdirectory. In each subdirectory, the data files are named YYMMDD.gz where YY is the year, MM is the month and DD is the day that the data are valid. An example of the file name for the NCDC SAO "Specials" data for 5 April 1995 would be 950405.gz. Refer to the appropriate composite and dataset documentation in the /docs directory of this ESOP 1995 CD-ROM for a detailed data description. 3.1.6 /sounding This directory contains the ESOP 1995 upper air sounding data. The DOE/ARM Program sounding data are located in the /arm_cart subdirectory. The NWS sounding data are located in the /nws subdirectory. The VORTEX NCAR class sounding data are located in the /vortex/ncarclss sub- directory, and the VORTEX NSSL mobile class soundings are located in the /vortex/nsslmbl subdirectory. All of these subdirectories are further divided into another layer of subdirectories that contain the sounding data for a particular date. The subdirectories are named MMDD where MM is the UTC month and DD is the UTC day that the sounding data are valid. The subdirectory containing 15 May data is named /0515. The DOE/ARM Program sounding data files are named MMDDHHSS.gz where MM is the UTC month, DD is the UTC day, HH is the UTC hour, and SS is the station identification of the reporting station. The file containing 03 hour 8 April data for station C1 is named 040803C1.gz. The NWS sounding data files are named MDDHHSSS.gz where M is the UTC month (4 through 9), DD is the UTC day, HH is the UTC hour, and SSS is the station identification of the reporting station. The file containing 00 hour 1 April data for station ABQ is named 40100ABQ.gz. The NCAR class and NSSL mobile class sounding files are named HHMMSSS.gz where HH is the UTC hour, MM is the UTC minute, and SSS is the station identification. The file containing the sounding data for 17:13 hours on 16 April for Lubbock, TX would be located in the /0416 subdirectory and would be named 1713lbb.gz. For a complete sounding data description, refer to the sounding documentation in the /docs directory of either ESOP 1995 CD-ROM. 3.1.7 /stn_list This directory contains the station information for the ESOP 1995 CD-ROM. General station metadata such as network, station latitude, longitude, elevation, occurrence, station identifier and station name are listed in the station information file. Two files containing identical information, one sorted by station identifier (stn_list.IDN) and the other sorted by station name (stn_list.NAM), have been provided. 3.1.8 /docs This directory contains all of the ESOP 1995 documentation. This directory contains detailed and general descriptions, formats, sample data, quality control processing, data remarks, and references for the composites/datasets on the ESOP 1995 CD-ROM. 3.1.9 /tools This directory contains the tool required to uncompress the GNUZIP-compressed data on this CD-ROM. The /dos subdirectory contains the tools to uncompress data on a DOS system, the /mac subdirectory contains the tools to uncompress data on a MAC system, and the /unix subdirectory contains the tools to uncompress data on a Unix system. The GNUZIP program is freely available for many different platforms. To obtain a copy of the compression program refer to any of the data description documents for data that have been compressed on this ESOP 1995 CD-ROM. The /dos subdirectory contains the tools required to uncompress data on a DOS system. There are several description files in that subdirectory, including the copying, gzip.doc, readme and readme.dos files. Read these documents before using the DOS tools. The /mac subdirectory contains the tools required to uncompress data on a MAC system. The "gzip" utility for Macintosh is provided on this CD-ROM in a BinHex-encoded Stuffit file, exactly as it was retrieved from the Internet. To use it, use Stuffit or Stuffit Expander to extract the contents of "mac_gzip.hqx", which is within the "tools/mac" subdirectory (folder) of the CD-ROM. This will result in a folder called "MacGzip". The folder contains complete documentation for the "gzip" program, which can be used to decompress data from this CD-ROM. If you do not have access to Stuffit, Stuffit Expander, or any other program which can unpack this BinHex archive, contact the UCAR Joint Office for Science Support for a copy of MacGzip on a Macintosh-format floppy diskette. The /unix subdirectory contains the tools required to uncompress data on a Unix system. Due to the large variety of Unix systems in existence, the GNU "gzip" utility is provided in source form, in the file "gzip.tar". This file was retrieved from the FTP site "prep.ai.mit.edu", where it is stored as "gzip-1.2.4.tar" in the directory "pub/gnu". It has been renamed to "gzip.tar" to conform to MS-DOS style naming conventions. To utilize the programs in this package, which will allow the decompression of the data from this CD-ROM, you must unpack it and build it. In a temporary directory, type "tar xvf{/cdrom}/tools/unix/gzip.tar", where {/cdrom} should be replaced with the actual path to the files on the CD-ROM on your system. This will create a directory called "gzip-1.2.4". Change to this directory and follow the instructions in the "README" and "INSTALL" files. 4.0 How to Obtain Additional ESOP 1995 Data The complete ESOP 1995 data set may be obtained by accessing the JOSS CODIAC System via the World Wide Web (WWW). CODIAC offers the user a vehicle to identify datasets of interest, the facilities to view associated metadata, and the ability to automatically obtain data from geographically dispersed data centers via Internet file transfer or separate media (tape, disk, etc.). CODIAC may also be accessed at the following WWW address: http://www.joss.ucar.edu/codiac/ Further details of CODIAC are available by calling: (303) 497-8987 or by sending email to codiac@ncar.ucar.edu. 5.0 References IGPO (International GEWEX Project Office), 1993: Implementation Plan for the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) - Volume I - Data Collection and Operational Model Upgrade. IGPO Publication Series No. 6, IGPO, Washington, D.C. IGPO (International GEWEX Project Office), 1994a: Implementation Plan for the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) - Volume II - Research Plan. IGPO Publication Series No. 7, IGPO, Washington, D.C. IGPO (International GEWEX Project Office), 1994b: Implementation Plan for the GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) - Volume III - Strategic Plan for Data Management. IGPO Publication Series No. 8, IGPO, Washington, D.C. IGPO (International GEWEX Project Office), 1994c: Tactical Data Management Plan for the first of the GCIP Initial Data Sets (GIDS- 1). Currently in publication. Interim copies available from JOSS. IGPO (International GEWEX Project Office), 1996: Tactical Data Collection and Management Report for the GCIP Integrated Systems Test (GIST). IGPO Publication Series No. 20, IGPO, Washington, D.C. USWRP (United States Weather Research Program, 1993: STORM-FEST Operations Summary and Data Inventory. USWRP Office/UCAR Office of Field Project Support, Boulder, Colorado. WMO (World Meteorological Organization), 1992: Scientific Plan for GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP). WCRP- 67, WMO/TD No. 461, WMO, Geneva, Switzerland. Copyright (c) 1996 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means -- graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems -- without permission of the copyright owner. This data and any accompanying written materials are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. UCAR expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and warranty of title. UCAR does not indemnify any infringement of copyright, patent, or trademark through use or modification of this data. UCAR does not provide maintenance, updates, or support for the data herein. All other products or services mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies.