Particle size and velocity distributions from an OTT Parsivel optical disdrometer located at Mario Zucchelli Station, aggregated to 5min, monthly netCDF archive

Disdrometric data from an OTT Parsivel with 32 size classes and 32 velocity classes located at Mario Zucchelli Station (Antarctica, -74.6945 N, 164.1152 E, 15 m a.s.l.). Mid values and widths of the classes are provided. Spectra are sampled every 5 minutes (after merging five 1-minute measurements) and saved in monthly netCDF files. Note that this data has been processed regardless of precipitation type. Particle Size distribution (PSD) is calculated for every data entry. Monthly cumulated spectra and PSD are also provided.

Metadata available at https://antarcticdatacenter.cnr.it/geonetwork/srv/api/records/ed6ea5bf-3f59-467b-9914-f4db387bb55d

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Example of netCDF file structure:

File "MZS_PAR_201612_5min.nc"

  dimensions:
    diameter = 32;
    velocity = 32;
    time = UNLIMITED;   // (7488 currently)
  variables:
    long time_UTC(time=7488);
      :description = "Measurement time. Timestamp indicates the end of the observation interval, e.g. 01-Mar-2020 00:05:00 represents the particle counts registered between 01-Mar-2020 00:00:01 and 01-Mar-2020 00:05:00.";
      :time_zone = "UTC";
      :units = "Seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 (Unix time).";
      :_ChunkSizes = 512U; // uint

    float diameters(diameter=32);
      :description = "Mid values of the size classes";
      :units = "mm";

    float velocities(velocity=32);
      :description = "Mid values of the velocity classes";
      :units = "m s^-1";

    float diameters_width(diameter=32);
      :description = "Width of the size classes";
      :units = "mm";

    float velocities_width(velocity=32);
      :description = "Width of the velocity classes";
      :units = "m s^-1";

    int spectrum(diameter=32, velocity=32, time=7488);
      :description = "Matrix of particle counts in each of the 32 diameter sizes and 32 velocity ranges over 5 minutes.";
      :units = "counts";
      :_ChunkSizes = 32U, 32U, 1U; // uint

    float PSD(diameter=32, time=7488);
      :description = "Particle size distribution, 5 minutes interval, normalized by the observed volume.";
      :units = "m^-3 mm^-1";
      :_ChunkSizes = 32U, 1U; // uint

    double monthlySpectrum(diameter=32, velocity=32);
      :description = "Matrix of particle counts in each of the 32 diameter sizes and 32 velocity ranges over the entire month.";
      :units = "counts";

    double monthlyPSD(diameter=32);
      :description = "Particle size distribution for the whole month, normalized by the observed volume.";
      :units = "m^-3 mm^-1";

  // global attributes:
  :title = "OTT Parsivel disdrometer data, aggregated to 5min, monthly netCDF archive.";
  :comment = "Particle counts diveded in 32 size classes and 32 velocity classes. Note that this data has been processed regardless of precipitation type.";
  :time_label = "Dec 2016";
  :institution = "CNR-ISAC, Rome (IT)";
  :contact_person = "Luca Baldini, CNR-ISAC, Rome, l.baldini@isac.cnr.it";
  :source = "OTT Parsivel disdrometer at MZS (Antarctica)";
  :location = "Mario Zucchelli Station (74°42\'S, 164°07\'E,  15 m a.s.l.)";
  :author = "Giacomo Roversi, Ca\' Foscari University, Venice (IT) and CNR-ISAC, Rome (IT), g.roversi@isac.cnr.it";
  :creation_date = "04-Nov-2024 15:40:53 UTC";
  :coverage = "Monthly coverage (Dec 2016): 83.871 %";
  :time_resolution = "5 minutes";
  :history = "Created from raw OTT telegram, aggregated to 5min temporal resolution with a sum of the 1-minute counts if least 3 out of 5 are not NaN.";