First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Marine Stratocumulus National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Wind Profiler Data

The First ISCCP Regional Experiments have been designed to improve data products and cloud/radiation parameterizations used in general circulation models (GCMs). Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to seek the basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems and the radiative properties of these clouds during their life cycles and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between ISCCP data, GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud data. To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13 - November 2, 1986); a marine stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29 - July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November 13 - December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - June 28, 1992). Each mission combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical processes of the cloud systems.There are three types of NOAA wind profiler data, all have been splined to a 25-meter vertical resolution and a 1-hour temporal resolution. Parameters include potential temperature derived from the CLASS (CSU, Steve Cox) radiosonde (100 to 2300 M above sea level), smoothed merged Pennsylvania State University (PSU) sodar and profiler wind speeds and directions (300 to 2075 M above sea level) and derived Richardson Numbers from these data (325-2050 M MSL).