The SAM II instrument, aboard the Earth-orbiting Nimbus 7 spacecraft, was designed to measure solar irradiance attenuated by aerosol particles in the Arctic and Antarctic stratosphere. This dataset collection contains 14 years of polar Arctic and Antarctic aerosol extinction profiles, atmospheric temperature and pressure data obtained from the Stratospheric Aerosol Instrument II (SAM II) on the NIMBUS 7 satellite.

The DIAMET project aimed to better the understanding and prediction of mesoscale structures in synoptic-scale storms. Such structures include fronts, rain bands, secondary cyclones, sting jets etc, and are important because much of the extreme weather we experience (e.g. strong winds, heavy rain) comes from such regions. Weather forecasting models are able to capture some of this activity correctly, but there is much still to learn. By a combination of measurements and modelling, mainly using the Met Office Unified Model (UM), the project worked to better understand how mesoscale processes in cyclones give rise to severe weather and how they can be better represented in models and better forecast. This dataset contains minute resolution meteorological measurements by the Met Office Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) during the DIAMET intensive observation campaigns.

The Exploitation of new data sources, data assimilation and ensemble techniques for storm and flood forecasting Project is a NERC Flood Risk for Extreme Events (FREE) Research Programme project (Round 1 - NE/E002137/1 - Duration January 2007 - April 2010) led by Prof AJ Illingworth, University of Reading. This project investigates possible methods of producing ensemble weather forecasts at high-resolution. These ensembles will be used with raingauge and river flow to improve methods of flood forecasting. The dataset includes radiosonde and wind profiles in England and Wales derived using Doppler radar returns from insects. The radial velocity measurements from insects were converted into VAD profiles by fitting a sinusoid to radial velocities at constant range. All measured profiles have been interpolated to the instrument location. This dataset contains temperature and pressure measurements from radiosondes.

The SAM II instrument, aboard the Earth-orbiting Nimbus 7 spacecraft, was designed to measure solar irradiance attenuated by aerosol particles in the Arctic and Antarctic stratosphere. The scientific objective of the SAM II experiment was to develop a stratospheric aerosol database for the polar regions by measuring and mapping vertical profiles of the atmospheric extinction due to aerosols. This database allows for studies of aerosol changes due to seasonal and short-term meteorological variations, atmospheric chemistry, cloud microphysics, and volcanic activity and other perturbations. The results obtained are useful in a number of applications, particularly the evaluation of any potential climatic effect caused by stratospheric aerosols. This dataset collection contains 14 years of polar Arctic and Antarctic aerosol extinction profiles, atmospheric temperature and pressure data obtained from the Stratospheric Aerosol Instrument II (SAM II) on the NIMBUS 7 satellite.

The Institute of Meterological and Climate Research Dornier 128 aircraft data were collected at Chilbolton, Hampshire by instruments on the aircraft, between the 22nd of June 2005 and the 14th of July 2005. The dataset includes measurements of wind direction and wind speed, air density, and air temperature. Measurements taken by the Dornier 128 aircraft and stored in this dataset are: static pressure, uncorrected (hPa) barometric altitude (m) radarheight above ground (m) latitude (deg) longitude (deg) true air speed (m/s) velocity over ground (m/s) vertical velocity (m/s) radiation pyranometer top (W/m2) radiation pyranomter bottom (W/m2) radiation pyrgeometer top (W/m2) radiation pyrgeometer bottom (W/m2) air density (kg/m3) fast air temperature (deg Celsius) potential temperature (deg Celsius) filtered mixing ratio (g/kg) mixing ratio Lyman-Alpha (g/kg) wind component west-east (m/s) wind component south-north (m/s) vertical wind component (m/s) wind direction (deg) wind speed (m/s)

The data were collected by the Met Office’s Radiometrics TP/WVP-3000 which was deployed to Linkenholt on 13 June until 21 September 2005. The dataset contains plots of temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and rainfall amount. It was initially configured to view in the zenith direction with very high time resolution (~12 s). All channels also viewed the internal black body target for relative calibration, initially every 5 minutes. However, initially this did not take place between 11 – 13 UTC due to a configuration error, which was corrected on 8 July 2005. Prior to this date, the calibration of data around noon is prone to drift. The radiometer ran continuously in this mode until 20 July 2005, when it was re-configured to alternative between zenith views and internal black body calibration views in a 30 s cycle because of concerns over the drift in calibration over the previous 5 minute calibration period. There was a power outage on 2 August 2005 from 0730 – 0946 UTC when no radiometer data was available.

The DIAMET project aimed to better the understanding and prediction of mesoscale structures in synoptic-scale storms. Such structures include fronts, rain bands, secondary cyclones, sting jets etc, and are important because much of the extreme weather we experience (e.g. strong winds, heavy rain) comes from such regions. Weather forecasting models are able to capture some of this activity correctly, but there is much still to learn. By a combination of measurements and modelling, mainly using the Met Office Unified Model (UM), the project worked to better understand how mesoscale processes in cyclones give rise to severe weather and how they can be better represented in models and better forecast. This dataset contains meteorological data recorded by radiosondes launched in support of the DIAMET campaign. Data are from the Manchester radiosondes launched at Aberystwyth and from Met Office sondes at Albemarle, Camborne, Castor Bay, Herstmonceux, Lerwick and Lochranza.

The Meteorological Research Flight (MRF) was a Met Office facility, which flew a well-instrumented C-130 Hercules aircraft for atmospheric research purposes. This dataset contains airborne atmospheric and chemistry measurements taken on board the Met Office C-130 Hercules aircraft flight A757 for the Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport of Ozone in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS) (ACTO) campaign. The flight was located over the North Atlantic.

The Meteorological Research Flight (MRF) was a Met Office facility, which flew a well-instrumented C-130 Hercules aircraft for atmospheric research purposes. This dataset contains airborne atmospheric and chemistry measurements taken on board the Met Office C-130 Hercules aircraft flight A755 for the Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport of Ozone in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS) (ACTO) campaign. The flight was located over the North Atlantic. The purpose of the flight was to investigate a dry slot behind a cold front to the North West of Scotland. Many interesting filaments of air were sampled. However, distinct 'stratospheric' filaments were not observed until the end of the flight. After the initial end of science an interesting filament was sampled with high ozone (around 130ppb). We retraced our steps in order to fly through once more at science speed. This filament, at FL150, was further east than the forecast 'stratospheric air' filaments. When the air of stratospheric origins was sampled it was found to have high ozone / low relative humidity as expected but it should be noted that there was also high PAN and slightly elevated black carbon. The instruments generally worked well. The FWVS had to have the odd adjustment in flight and then found to maintain a good correlation with the GE; the peroxide began to loose flow at around FL245 and the CO was found to have a small leak of cabin air, which was corrected by 13:50. The CO was also found to be influenced by the flow through the PSAP. The CO did not show much structure during the flight until near the end when the air with stratospheric characteristics was observed. Meteorology An anticyclone was centred to the east of the North Sea and a waving front positioned to approximately along 7 west. The frontal cloud was quite apparent on the way to the operational area. However, a flight level (FL140) was found above most of the cloud, for the NOxy calibrations. Once past the frontal cloud there was little cloud in the operational area: just some thin cirrus.

This is version 2.0.2.2017f of Met Office Hadley Centre's Integrated Surface Database, HadISD. These data are global sub-daily surface meteorological data that extends HadISD v2.0.1.2016p to include 2017 and so spans 1931-2017, it replaces the preliminary version (v2.0.2.2017p) as the ISD data for 2017 are now finalised. The quality controlled variables in this dataset are: temperature, dewpoint temperature, sea-level pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud data (total, low, mid and high level). Past significant weather and precipitation data are also included, but have not been quality controlled, so their quality and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Quality control flags and data values which have been removed during the quality control process are provided in the qc_flags and flagged_values fields, and ancillary data files show the station listing with a station listing with IDs, names and location information. The data are provided as one NetCDF file per station. Files in the station_data folder station data files have the format "station_code"_HadISD_HadOBS_19310101-20171231_v2-0-2-2017f.nc. The station codes can be found under the docs tab or on the archive beside the station_data folder. The station codes file has five columns as follows: 1) station code, 2) station name 3) station latitude 4) station longitude 5) station height. To keep informed about updates, news and announcements follow the HadOBS team on twitter @metofficeHadOBS. For more detailed information e.g bug fixes, routine updates and other exploratory analysis, see the HadISD blog: http://hadisd.blogspot.co.uk/ For a more detailed description of precipitation see: http://hadisd.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/precipitation-in-hadisd.html References: When using the dataset in a paper you must cite the following papers (see Docs for link to the publications) and this dataset (using the "citable as" reference) : Dunn, R. J. H., Willett, K. M., Parker, D. E., and Mitchell, L.: Expanding HadISD: quality-controlled, sub-daily station data from 1931, Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 5, 473-491, doi:10.5194/gi-5-473-2016, 2016. Dunn, R. J. H., et al. (2012), HadISD: A Quality Controlled global synoptic report database for selected variables at long-term stations from 1973-2011, Clim. Past, 8, 1649-1679, 2012, doi:10.5194/cp-8-1649-2012 Smith, A., N. Lott, and R. Vose, 2011: The Integrated Surface Database: Recent Developments and Partnerships. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 92, 704–708, doi:10.1175/2011BAMS3015.1 For a homogeneity assessment of HadISD please see this following reference Dunn, R. J. H., K. M. Willett, C. P. Morice, and D. E. Parker. "Pairwise homogeneity assessment of HadISD." Climate of the Past 10, no. 4 (2014): 1501-1522. doi:10.5194/cp-10-1501-2014, 2014.