May 15, 2014

POINT OF CONTACT

Principle investigator:
     Kirk L. Clawson
     NOAA Air Resources Laboratory Field Research Division
     1750 Foote Dr.
     Idaho Falls, ID 83402
     Kirk.Clawson@noaa.gov
     (208) 526-2742

README.TXT - Description of Data Files from Radar Wind Profiler and RASS

A 500 W, 915 MHz radar wind profiler (PRO) with Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) 
measured the upper wind and air temperature profiles during PSB1.  This system has 
operated continuously at its location on the tracer dispersion grid at about 800 m arc 
distance and 56 degrees arc angle since 1992. The radar wind profiler with RASS provided 
highly-resolved round-the-clock data for determining mixing layer characteristics above 
the sounding site.  The radar wind profiler was configured to take measurements at 28 
levels covering the vertical range of 159 to 2895 m with a vertical resolution set at 
101 m.  Remotely-sensed measurements include wind speed and direction. The RASS was 
configured to take measurements of temperature with a vertical resolution of 105 m 
covering the range 165 to 1633 m AGL.  

The wind profiler data was retrieved and stored in the ARLFRD database similarly to 
the Mesonet data.  The system has a built-in automatic quality control algorithm from 
the manufacturer. Data was flagged as -950 for any data points identified as suspect.

Some of the  data from the wind speed profiler is suspect. As noted above, the PRO 
wind directions were roughly consistent with wind direction measurements made by other 
instruments at similar heights. However, the PRO wind speed measurements were 
characterized by a low wind speed bias relative to other instruments when wind speeds 
were below 5 m/s.

The data for the wind profiler are archived in CSV format for the month of October in 
the file 'GRIprofiler_PSB1_October.csv'. Wind data were collected for 25 minute intervals 
twice each hour at 5 to 30 minutes past the hour and at 35 to 60 minutes past the hour. 
The ‘hrmn’ listed in each file are the hour and minute starting times in MST for the 25 
minute sampling period. Wind speed (m/s) is specified with ‘ws’ and wind direction 
(degrees) is specified with ‘wd’. The number appended to the ‘ws’ and ‘wd’ represents the 
height level of the measurement. Levels 1 through 28 represent the measurement heights of 
159, 261, 362, 463, 565, 666, 767, 868, 970, 1071, 1172, 1274, 1375, 1476, 1578, 1679, 
1780, 1882, 1983, 2084, 2186, 2287, 2388, 2490, 2591, 2692, 2794, and 2895 m agl, 
respectively. Missing values are designated by ‘-950’.

The data for the RASS are archived in their original text file format (extension T2B). 
There are 5 files, one for each full day that included a test release during PSB1. 
The five files are GRI31002, GRI31005, GRI31007, GRI31011, and GRI31018. The 
temperature data were collected for 5 minute intervals twice each hour from zero to 
5 minutes past the hour and from 30 to 35 minutes past the hour.  The files contain a 
data block representing each half-hour record designated by starting time (MST) in 
HHMM format.  Within each individual half-hour data block the first 3 columns are QC 
code, height (m, agl), and temperature (Tv, deg C). The QC code ‘0’ indicates valid data 
and temperature records with ‘-950’ represent failed consensus. The data codes are listed 
in the header text of each file along with date, location, Julian day, and other 
information. Data recovery for the RASS was often poor.

