SPLASH Field Study; NOAA and CIRES Ceilometer Cloud Data Products at Kettle Ponds, Colorado, 2021-10-19 to 2023-08-15 (NCEI Accession 0301002)

From fall 2021 through summer 2023, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) conducted a field study (SPLASH - the Study of Precipitation, the Lower Atmosphere and Surface for Hydrometeorology). This field study established a state-of-the-art observing network in the East River watershed of the Colorado mountains with a goal of advancing weather and water prediction capabilities in areas with complex terrain. The ultimate goal of this project is improved prediction of weather and water in the Colorado mountains and beyond to inform societal preparedness and response.

The NOAA GML Radiation, Aerosols, and Cloud Division (G-RAD) and CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder, operated Vaisala CL51 ceilometers at the Kettle Ponds (CKP) and Brush Creek (CBC) observatory field sites during the SPLASH experiment. The cloud product files were produced in order to condense the wealth of level 0 data streams and instrument health checks in order to focus on the primary data observations/products these ceilometers produce; namely attenuated backscatter coefficient profiles (aerosol and cloud hydrometeor backscatter) cloud detection status, and cloud base height above ground level. Note, Vaisala’s BL View retrieved boundary layer height estimates are not included in these files but will be archived as separate data product/data files.

The files were produced daily at each location. The CL51 ceilometers were deployed in early- to mid-October 2021, with data collection occurring from 2021-10-19 through 2023-08-15 at the Kettle Ponds site. A separate archive is available for the data collected at the Brush Creek location.