Vertical profiles of Doppler spectra of hydrometeors from a Micro Rain Radar recorded during the austral summer of 2016/2017 in the Southern Ocean on the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE).

Dataset abstract

This dataset includes vertical profiles of the Doppler spectra and derived quantities of hydrometeors using a Micro Rain Radar (MRR-2) during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition in 2016/2017. The MRR is a frequency-modulated-continuous-wave (FMCW) Doppler radar working at 24 GHz (K band). It measures the Doppler spectrum at vertical incidence with 31 range gates of 100 m. The data is processed to calculate rainfall and snowfall rates. For rainfall, the drop size distribution and the rainfall rate are derived using the method by Peters et al. (2005). For snowfall, the particle size distribution is estimated from the Doppler spectrum to compute the snowfall rate as described in Maahn & Kollias (2012).

Dataset contents

• RawSpectra/${year}${month}/MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}_RAW.nc: raw data of Doppler spectra for rainfall events. Null values are denoted as -99900.
• ProcessedData/${year}${month}/MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}_PRO.nc: 10-second averages (highest resolution) for specific precipitation events, using the standard products from Metek (MRR physical basics, 2009).
• veData/${year}${month}/MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}_AVE.nc: one-minute averages for specific precipitation events, using the standard products from Metek (MRR physical basics, 2009).
• Processed_IMProToo/${year}${month}/mrr_improtoo_0.101_ACE_${year}${month}${day}.nc: processed data for snowfall events using IMProToo (Maahn & Kollias 2012) in one-minute averages.
• RR_timeline/${year}${month}/RR_MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}.csv: 10-minute running mean with one-minute resolution of rain rate for [100-200]m and [200-300]m range gate. Null values are denoted as ‘nan’.
• RR_timeline/${year}${month}/RR_MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}.png: daily plots of rain rates.
• PrecipitationEvents.txt: text file classifying the precipitation events according to hydrometeors (rain, snow or hail).
• Graphs_Metek/${year}${month}/moments_MRR_ACE_${year}${month}${day}_AVEnc.png: daily plots of Radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity for rainfall events.
• Graphs_IMProToo/${year}${month}/moments_mrr_improtoo_0101_ACE_${year}${month}${day}.png: daily plots of Radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity for snowfall events.
• RawSpectra_data_file_header.txt, metadata, text format
• Metek_ProcessedData_data_file_header.txt, metadata, text format
• IMProToo_ProcessedData_data_file_header.txt, metadata, text format
• AveData_data_file_header.txt, metadata, text format
• README.txt, metadata, text format
• change_log.txt, metadata, text format

Change log

• v1.1 - Added missing PrecipitationEvents.txt file. Added change_log.txt file.
• v1.0 - Initial version of dataset.

Dataset license

This vertical Doppler spectra profile dataset is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) whose full text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/