The TOGA COARE Data Information System is responsible for distributing all information related to TOGA COARE. Link to: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/coare/.
For help with NASA TOGA COARE data residing at the GSFC DAAC contact Pat Hrubiak at hrubiak@daac.gsfc.nasa.gov.
BACKGROUND
TOGA COARE was a multidisciplinary, international research effort that investigated the scientific phenomena associated with the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in the warm pool region of the western Pacific. The field experiment phase of the program took place from 1 November 1992 through 28 February 1993 and involved the deployment of oceanographic ships and buoys, several ship and land based Doppler radars, multiple low and high level aircraft equipped with Doppler radar and other airborne sensors, as well as a variety of surface based instruments for in situ observations.
The NASA component of TOGA COARE, while contributing directly to overall COARE objectives, emphasized scientific objectives associated with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and NASA's cloud and radiation program.
AIRCRAFT
The NASA ER-2 is a high altitude, single pilot aircraft based at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, and deployed globally in support of a variety of atmospheric research projects. It has a maximum altitude of 70,000 feet (21 km), a range of 3000 nautical miles, a maximum flight duration of 8 hours (nominal 6.5 hours) and a top speed of 410 knots true air speed. The aircraft accommodates about 2700 pounds (1200 kg) of payload. For the TOGA COARE campaign, the ER-2 payload consisted of a variety of radiometers, a lidar, a conductivity probe and a camera.
INSTRUMENT INFORMATION
The MIR was flown on the NASA ER-2 from 12 January through 24 February 1993. The overall measurement objectives of the MIR include the evaluation of millimeter wavelengths for the detection and estimation of convective rainfall, and the study of the effects of cloud microphysical structures on rainfall estimation and water vapor profiles. The collected data will be useful in developing algorithms for interpreting data collected from future spaceborne microwave sensors such as Advanced Microwave Sensor Unit (AMSU) that will be flown onboard the EOS PM satellite.
The MIR was nadir-oriented in the forward compartment of the right wing pod of the ER-2 aircraft. It scannned in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flight with a swath of +/- 50 degrees from nadir. Each scan took 3 seconds and produced 57 brightness temperature values.
The following table summarizes some characteristics of the MIR radiometer:
The MIR data consist of calibrated brightness temperatures in degrees Kelvin at 89, 150, 183.3+/-1, 183.3+/-3, 183.3+/-7 and 220 GHz.
The total volume of the MIR data set is approximately 148 MB. There are 12 MIR data files, each containing data from one mission flight of the NASA ER-2. These files have a typical size of approximately 12.5 MB. The file naming convention is
toga_flightXX.mir
where XX is a 2-digit flight number.
Flight coordination table: The following table relates MIR filenames to ER-2 and DC-8 flight numbers and dates for the 13 mission flights of the NASA/TOGA COARE campaign. Also included is ER-2 flight 93-061 of 7 February, that produced MIR data although it was not designated as a mission flight.
Date(UTC) ER-2 Flight DC-8 Flight MIR Filename
Jan 11-12 93-053 93-01-06 toga_flight01.mir Jan 17-18 93-054 93-01-07 toga_flight02.mir Jan 18-19 93-055 93-01-08 toga_flight03.mir Jan 25-26 93-056 93-01-09 toga_flight04.mir Jan 31-Feb 1 93-058 93-01-10 toga_flight05.mir Feb 4 93-060 93-01-11 toga_flight06.mir Feb 6 93-01-12 Feb 7 93-061 toga_flight07.mir Feb 8-9 93-062 93-01-13 toga_flight08.mir Feb 10-11 93-063 93-01-14 toga_flight09.mir Feb 17-18 93-01-15 Feb 20-21 93-065 93-01-16 toga_flight10.mir Feb 22-23 93-066 93-01-17 toga_flight11.mir Feb 23-24 93-067 93-01-18 toga_flight12.mir
Data format: The data are in IEEE 32-bit (floating point) words. Each logical record has 359 words. The blocking factor is 20 and hence each physical record has 28720 bytes (20 x 4 x 359).
Each logical record contains one calibrated MIR scan comprising temporal, spatial and aircraft attitude information for the nadir position (beam position 29) of the scan followed by a brightness temperature value for each of 57 beam positions at all 6 MIR frequencies.
Logical Record Format --------------------- Word 1 Record Number 2 Month - Real time clock (RTC) 3 Day - Real time clock (RTC) 4 Hour - IRIG 5 Minute - IRIG 6 Second - IRIG 7 Julian Day - Navigation 8 Hour - Navigation 9 Minute - Navigation 10 Second - Navigation 11 Latitude - Degrees 12 Longitude - Degrees (-West, +East) 13 Air Temperature - Degrees celsius 14 Altitude - Feet 15 Pitch - Degrees (+ for nose down) 16 Roll - Degrees (+ for roll right) 17 Heading - Degrees 18- 74 57 brightness temperatures - degrees Kelvin 90 GHz 75-131 " " " - " " 150 132-188 " " " - " " 183.3 +/-1 189-245 " " " - " " 183.3 +/-3 246-302 " " " - " " 183.3 +/-7 303-359 " " " - " " 220
Aircraft Data Facility, 1993: ER-2 Flight Summary Report, NASA ER-2 Deployment, Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000.
NASA TOGA COARE Project Office, 1993: Mission Summary Reports, TOGA COARE. NASA Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 483, Hampton, VA 23666. ... NASA TOGA COARE Project Office, 1994: NASA/TOGA COARE Science Data Workshop II Proceedings, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 15-17, 1994, NASA Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 483, Hampton, VA 23666, 4 pp.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1992: TOGA COARE Operations Plan, Working Version September 1992. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 138 pp.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1993: TOGA COARE Intensive Observing Period Operations Summary. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 505 pp.
TOGA COARE International Project Office (TCIPO), 1994: Summary Report of the TOGA COARE International Data Workshop, Toulouse, France, 2 - 11 August 1994, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307, 170 pp.
Webster, P.J., and R. Lukas, 1992: TOGA COARE: The Coupled Ocean- Atmosphere Response Experiment. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 73, 1377-1416.
World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), 1985: Scientific Plan for the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment. WCRP Publications Series, No. 3 Addendum, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, 96 pp.
