XDS: WPDN

NOAA’s former Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL) Demonstration Division provided data from an array of wind profilers. These data include wind profiles, spectral moments, RASS temperature profiles, and surface observations. More information about these data can be found at the profiler web site.

WPDN measurements

Current data are available at the ARM Archive approximately three days after they are generated.

sgp06wpdnmmtsX1.a1 covers the seven WPDN stations surrounding the SGP Site

LOCATION                LAT     LON
______________________________________
Haviland        KS      37.65   99.09 
Hillsboro       KS      38.31   97.30  
Lamont          OK      36.69   97.48 
Morris (Haskell)OK      35.68   95.86
Neodesha        KS      37.38   95.63 
Purcell         OK      34.98   97.52   
Vici            OK      36.07   99.22

The other data streams contain all the stations available. A list of available stations can be found at profiler site location information.

sgp06wpdnmmtsX1.00
sgp60wpdnmmtsX1.00
sgp60wpdnrassX1.00
sgp60wpdnsurfX1.00
sgp60wpdnwndsX1.00
sgp06fslwpdnmetX1.00
sgp06fslwpdnrassX1.00
sgp60fslwpdnmetX1.00
sgp60fslwpdnrassX1.00

The profiler website

Vasile Tudor Garbulet

ARM Data Center

sgp60wpdnrassX1.b1
The following is the data provider’s response to a question about correcting for vertical velocity in the temperature estimates:

To this date, we have not corrected our RASS temperature estimates for the vertical motion of the atmosphere. It is true that we should, at least some of the time, but not during periods of precipitation.

Ideally, we would apply the vertical velocity correction anytime the profiler would be measuring the true clear-air motion of the atmosphere. But when precipitation begins, the vertical velocity correction should not be applied because the wind profiler would then be measuring the fall speed of the hydrometeors and not the true air motion that the RASS is working with.

The question becomes when is it precipitating? Our profilers are sensitive to clouds and easily measure the fall velocity of snowflakes. We are looking at the magnitude of the errors in RASS temperatures versus the measured vertical velocities. We no doubt should correct for larger fall velocities, say > 1-3 m/s, but we see these often here in the lee of the Rockies, both clear-air and during precipitation. Surface obs. don’t work well to detect precipitation because of our dry atmosphere (virga). Maybe it’s a combination of thresholds (velocity and signal power) that must be known to tell when to apply the correction.

Consensus Algorithms

A reference for consensus algorithms is available at the XDC Web site (http://www.xdc.arm.gov/docs/data_info/sgp/qcalgo.txt)

sgp60wpdnsurfX1
The global attribute, Platform Description, is incorrect after Oct. 1, 1997 through the end of coverage (Feb. 26, 2002). The global attribute only lists the first 14 stations. The complete station information can be found at the XDC Web site.

Check for Data Quality Reports about these data via the ARM DQR web service

FSLWPDN data collection was discontinued on 11/05/2014

FSL    Forecast Systems Laboratory
NCDC   National Climatic Data Center
RASS   Radio Acoustic Sounding System
SGP    Southern Great Plains
WPDN   Wind Profiler Demonstration Network

Barth, MF, RB Chadwick, and DW van de Kamp. 1994. “Data processing algorithms used by NOAA’s wind profiler demonstration network.” Annales Geophysicae 12(6): 518-528, doi: 10.1007/s00585-994-0518-1

Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL), May 1996, FSL in Review- Fiscal Year 1995, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, 102 pp.

National Weather Service and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, August 1994, Wind Profiler Assessment Report and Recommendations for Future Use 1987-1994, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Silver Spring, Maryland, 141 pp.