NERC Data Catalogue Service
NERC Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar: stratospheric and tropospheric structure and dynamics observations, version 4.0
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the Radar Facility's (MSTRF's) site in Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth, Mid-Wales.
This dataset contains time-series of vertical profiles of derived atmospheric dynamics (wind speed, direction) and structure (indications of refractive index structures and turbulence) from observations taken from the 46.5 MHz pulsed Doppler radar. It is primarily used for making atmospheric observations over the approximate altitude range 2 - 20 km, i.e. of the free troposphere (above the boundary layer) and the lower stratosphere, known as the "ST-mode". Additional observations are made over the approximate altitude range 56 - 96 km, i.e. covering the mesosphere - known as the "M-mode" (see related dataset); hence the term "MST" radar.
The instrument has been in operation, using the Doppler Beam Swinging technique (see linked documentation for further details), since late 1989. It was initially operated on a campaign basis, but switched to quasi-continuous observations (i.e. close to 24-7 operation) in late 1997. In 2011 the radar system underwent renovation with significant improvements in radar performance.
The version 4.0 (v4.0) data processing scheme is closely related to the version 3 (v3) scheme and uses v3 Cartesian files as input. The main difference is that the horizontal wind components in the v4 Cardinal files represent time averages, which have a smaller random measurement error compared to the single cycle estimates in the v3 Cartesian files.
Data products available from the v4 Cardinal files include time-series profiles of:
- eastward wind
- northward wind
- upward wind
- (radar return) signal power (giving an indication of atmospheric structure) - also known as echo power
- (beam broadening) corrected spectral width (giving a measure of turbulence intensity)
- tropopause altitude and sharpness
A full list of variables will be added to this record in due course.
Quick look plots for these data are available - see related links under the "docs" tab below.
Note - some files are released marked as '-suspect'. These have been released to permit early access to the data where the majority of data are known to pass quality control, but a small, limited part of the data have been identified as being 'suspect'. An internal remark about the suspect data may be found within the file's metadata 'comments' attribute.
Default
Identification info
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2017-08-17T08:34:49
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2017-08-17T08:34:49
- Identifier
- Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / 86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48
- Maintenance and update frequency
- daily
- Update scope
- dataset
- Keywords
-
- MST Radar
- NERC
- troposphere
- stratosphere
- wind speed
- wind direction
- profiles
- echo power
- turbulence
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ()
-
- atmospheric conditions
- Limitations on Public Access
- otherRestrictions
- Other constraints
- Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for an account to gain access.
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions
- Spatial representation type
- grid
- Topic category
-
- Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
))
- Begin date
- 2011-04-30T23:00:00
- Code
- WGS 84
Distribution Information
- Data format
-
-
Data are NetCDF formatted.
()
-
Data are NetCDF formatted.
()
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Resource Locator
-
DOWNLOAD
Download Data
- Resource Locator
-
MST radar facility instrument performance log
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere data parameter plots (winds, echo power, shear)
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere diagnostic parameter plots (secondary signals, beam comparisons, theta-s compensation factors)
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Resource Locator
-
DOWNLOAD
Download Data
- Resource Locator
-
MST radar facility instrument performance log
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere data parameter plots (winds, echo power, shear)
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere diagnostic parameter plots (secondary signals, beam comparisons, theta-s compensation factors)
No further details.
- Quality Scope
- dataset
Report
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2010-12-08
- Statement
- Data are acquired by the MST radar facility and sent to Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) within an hour of acquisition. Data are then immediately ingested into the CEDA Archives.
Metadata
- File identifier
- 86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48 XML
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Character set
- 8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646
- Parent identifier
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility: surface and upper air meteorology measurements from Aberystwyth, mid-Wales bd095d86e4a9f0c706b08058dbad3b31
- Resource type
- dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2022-08-04T00:03:31
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
