DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3fm
title: Data for: Attributes of CloudSat identified echo objects

description: This data set contains a collection of attributes associated with CloudSat
 identified echo objects (or contiguous regions of radar/dBZ echo) from15
 June 2006 till 17 January 2013. CloudSat is a NASA satellite that carries
 a 94 GHz (3 mm) nadir pointing cloud profiling radar (CPR). CloudSat makes
 approximately 14 orbits per day with an equator passing time of 0130 and
 1330 local time. Echo objects were identified using CloudSat's
 2B-GEOPROF product that includes 2D arrays (alongtrack x vertical) of the
 radar reflectivity factor and gaseous attenuation correction. Also
 included in the product is a "cloud mask" with values ranging
 between 0 and 40 with higher values indicating a greater likelihood of
 cloud detection. An EO was defined as a contiguous region of cloud mask
 greater than or eaqual to 20, consisting of at least three pixels with
 their edges and not merely their corners touching. Each echo object (EO)
 is assigned multiple attributes. The geographic attributes include
 minimum, mean, and maximum latitude and longitude, minimum and maximium
 location along the CloudSat orbit track, and the underlying surface
 altitude and land mask data, which allows the EOs to be catagorized as
 occuring over land, sea, or the coast. The geometric attributes include
 top, mean, and bottom height, width, and the total number of pixels within
 the EO. Attributes describing the internal structure of the EO are also
 available including the number of pixels and cells (i.e., group of pixels)
 greater than 0 dBZ and -17 dBZ. Finally, the time of day of occurance was
 also recorded to compare the statistics of EOs ocurring during the daytime
 versus nighttime. In total, we identified 15,181,193 EOs from 15 June 2006
 to 17 January 2013. After 17 April 2011, data were only collected during
 the day due to a battery failure onboard CloudSat. Each attribute is
 organized as a 1D array where the size of the array corresponds to the
 number of EOs. This organization allows subsets of EOs to be easily
 identified using simple "where" statements when writing code.
 The attributes were used to identify cloud types and analyze global cloud
 climatology according to season, surface type, and region (i.e., Riley
 2009; Riley and Mapes 2009). The varability of EOs across the MJO was also
 analyzed (Riley et al. 2011).
description: Data:
 
 Raw files were downloaded from ftp1.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu
 in directory 2B-GEOPROF.R04 Processed files are in
 netcdf format Processing: Data were processed and analyzed using IDL. See CloudSat_code_README.txt for details The initial processing was done while I was a graduate student at the Univerisity of Miami working on my masters from 2006-2009 Code is available at https://github.com/erileydellaripa/CYGNSS_code Data file description: Once the tar.gz file is unpacked, the EO attributes are provided in the EO_masterlistYYYY.nc files, where YYYY corresponds to the different years. I transferred the EO attributes from IDL .save files to netcdf files for sharing. A description of each EO attribute is provide in the README.md and if you do an ncdump -h  in a terminal window. The attributes are organized in 1D arrays, where the element of each array corresponds to a unique EO and the total size of the array corresponds to the total number of EOs identified. Data are processed from the start of CloudSat 15 June 2006 till 17 January 2013 for the EO attributes. In total, there are 15,181,193 EOs. There was a battery failure 17 April 2011. CloudSat resumed collecting data 27 October 2011, but only during the day. References: Riley, E. M., B. E. Mapes, and S. N. Tulich, 2011: Clouds Associated with the Madden-Julian Oscillation: A New Perspective from CloudSat. J. Atmos. Sci., 68, 3032-3051, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-11-030.1. Riley, E. M., and B. E. Mapes, 2009: Unexpected peak near -15°C in CloudSat echo top climatology. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L09819, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL037558. Riley, E. M., 2009: A global survey of clouds by CloudSat. M.S. thesis, Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of Miami, 134 pp, https://scholarship.miami.edu/esploro/outputs/991031447848002976.