NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) Flight Level Data

NOAA AOC WP-3D Research Flight Data is digital data set DSI-6420, archived at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). This data set is meteorological data gathered by Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft, operated by the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) at MacDill AFB, Florida. Data is provided by the Science and Engineering Division of AOC to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The WP-3D aircraft perform many projects throughout the year. Examples of these projects would be hurricane research, atmospheric chemistry, thunderstorm investigations, and winter weather missions. Each of these projects consists of a series of individual flights. For instance, during hurricane projects, the P-3 may fly numerous flights through different tropical cyclones. For each archived project, there are multiple directories consisting of individual flights. The data in these flight directories contain the actual raw meteorological parameters obtained from sensors located in different positions on the aircraft. The data is initially written to a digital data tape on the aircraft and then later converted to a file for faster processing and archiving. Each flight folder also contains a scanned image of the actual flight manifest, the navigation log, and the mission observation logs. The flight-level data file contains measurements acquired in one second intervals. The following is a generalized list of these measured parameters: Time, GPS position data, inertial data, radar altimeter measurements, liquid water, total temperature, dewpoint temperature, attack pressure, slip pressure, differential attack and slip pressures, and static and dynamic pressure. Depending on the needs of each individual project, other sources of data will be added or subtracted from this list. As of publication this record consists of 5 projects: 1) NOAA-42 Aircraft-N42RF during the 2003 Hurricane season, the Tamdar project, and a wind calibration flight. 2) NOAA-43 Aircraft-N43RF-2003 Sar Pod, Hurricane, and Extratropical Season as well as the SFMR test flight missions. 3) NOAA-49 Aircraft-N49RF 2004 Winter Storms Experiment. 4) NOAA-43 Name Experiment 2004. 5) NOAA-49 Aircraft N49RF Hurricane Season 2004.

Tags: active remote sensing, air temperature, aircraft, airspeed/ground speed, anemometers, atlantic ocean, atmosphere, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric pressure measurements, atmospheric temperature, atmospheric water vapor, atmospheric winds, attitude characteristics, brightness temperatures, c-band radar, c-band scatterometer, c-scat, cbr, chemical meters/analyzers, cloud liquid water/ice, cloud microphysics, cloud optical depth/thickness, clouds, conductivity, continent, ctd, cyclones, depth, differential pressure, doc/noaa/nesdis/ncdc, doc/noaa/nesdis/ncei, dropsondes, dropwindsondes, earth remote sensing instruments, earth science, eldora, electra doppler radar, expendable bathythermographs, expendable current profiler, flight level winds, gps sondes, human dimensions, humidity, hurricanes, imaging radars, in situ/laboratory instruments, infrared carbon dioxide analyzer, ir co2 analyzer, lockheed wp-3d orion, mfrsr, microwave radiometer, microwave wavelengths, mr, multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer and broadband pyranometer, national centers for environmental information, national climatic data center, natural hazards, nesdis, noaa, north america, north atlantic ocean, north pacific ocean, ocean, ocean temperature, oceans, pacific ocean, particle measuring system, particle measuring systems 2d-c probe, particle measuring systems 2d-p probe, particle measuring systems 2d-s probe, passive remote sensing, platform characteristics, pms, pms 2d-c probe, pms 2d-p probe, pms 2d-s probe, polarimetric ku-band scatterometer, polscat, precipitation, precipitation amount, precipitation rate, pressure sensors, pressure thickness, pressure/height meters, profilers/sounders, pyranometers, pyrgeometers, radar sounders, radio sounders, radiometers, scatterometers, sea surface, sea surface temperature, severe storms, spectral/engineering, spectrometers/radiometers, step frequency radiometers, surface temperature, temperature, temperature sensors, temperature/humidity sensors, thermal/radiation detectors, tropical cyclones, troposphere, typhoons, u.s. department of commerce, upper air temperature, upper level winds, vertical location, vertical wind velocity/speed, water vapor indicators, water vapor profiles, wind dynamics, wind profiles, wp-3d orion, xbt, xcp
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce