Forcing Data for MC3E Updated

 
Published: 16 May 2014
Multi-scale domains for MC3E, with diameters of 300 km, 150 km, and 75 km. The red triangles denote sounding locations. The green diamonds denote the locations of scanning cloud radars.

Large-scale forcing data from the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) have been revised based on the recent update to MC3E sounding data for improved dry bias correction. These include both the ensemble forcing, which is based on uncertainties in precipitation, and the multi-domain forcing data sets over the 300 km, 150 km, and 75 km domains. The major changes made in the reprocessed sounding data by the ARM infrastructure team at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) include:

  • Used RH_adjust values instead of RH_scaled in the most updated corrected sounding data sets. This change will impact precipitating periods the most. In some cases, the domain average atmospheric relative humidity (RH) increases by 10-20%.
  • Fixed a small bug in calculating sounding measurement time and locations.

These changes resulted in considerable changes to the derived large-scale forcing data, especially during precipitation periods. Users are strongly encouraged to re-run their experiments with this new version and provide feedback. Feedback collected will be used to further improve the forcing data and guide our future forcing data development. To share feedback, ask questions, or report data problems, please contact Shaocheng Xie.

To access the updated data sets, log into the ARM Data Archive. (Go here to request an account).