Numerical Model Generated Baja Test Scenes for EarthCARE Pre-launch Studies - Part 1: Atmospheric and Surface Properties

This first part of the dataset contains the atmospheric and surface conditions of Baja test scene (39318D) used for pre-launch studies of EarthCARE’s retrieval algorithms and data management system. The data are produced by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM) NWP model (Côté et al., 1998, Girard et al., 2014). The surface albedo climatology is based MODIS’s MCD43GF 1 km resolution bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) product for the period 2002 to 2013 (Schaaf et al. 2002). Please refer to the second part of this dataset for the hydrometeor and aerosol properties.

The Baja test frame is 6200 km long and 200 km wide with horizontal grid-spacing of 250 km and 57 vertical layers. The simulation is initialized at 12h00 UTC 02-Apr-2015 and saved at 21h00 UTC. This frame extends from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, over central North America’s Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, and ends near Baja California Sur. It includes conditions of blowing snow and largely cloudless in the north end of the frame, low scattered clouds over snow-covered surfaces through the Canadian Prairies, cloudy condition over the Rocky Mountains and clear sky with some cirrus in the south end of the frame.