This collection contains data from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility at Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth in West Wales. The principal measurements made by the MST radar, a 46.5 MHz pulsed Doppler radar), ideally suited for studied of atmospheric winds, waves and turbulence. It is run predominantly in the ST mode (approximately 2 - 20 km altitude) for which MST radars are unique in their ability to give continuous measurements of the three dimensional wind vector at high resolution (typically 2 - 3 minutes in time and 300 m in altitude). Under certain circumstances they can additionally provide information about humidity, static stability (thus allowing monitoring of the altitude and sharpness of the tropopause) and turbulence of at least moderate intensity. Surface meteorological measurements from the radar site, ceilometer data, sky camera images and wind speed and direction recorded from a 10m tower located at Frongoch (6km away) are also available. Other instruments at the facility have included one of the Met Office's boundary layer wind profilers and, on occasion, the NCAS's boundary layer wind profiler. The collection also includes high-resolution radiosonde data from RAF Aberporth, approximately 45 km to the south-west of the radar site, are available for the period April 1990 - June 2000 and data from the RAL Cloud Radar. Facility data are available to all registered users under the UK Open Government License; Met Office data are available under the NERC-Met Office agreement and the RAL Cloud Radar is restricted to registered users at present.

Images from the sky camera mounted at the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility, Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth in West Wales. Images are in jpeg format.

Version 0 processing of data from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar near Aberystwyth in West Wales represents processing scheme in place from the early 1990s until 2007. The principal measurements made by the MST radar are of the three dimensional wind vector over the altitude range 2 - 20 km, with additional measurements from the mesophere between 65 and 80 km. The data in this dataset include echo power as well as radial and vector winds components. Surface meteorological measurements from the radar site, ceilometer data, sky camera images and wind speed and direction recorded from a 10m tower located 6km away are also available. Other instruments at the facility have included one of the Met Office's boundary layer wind profilers and NCAS's boundary layer wind profiler.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council at the Radar Facility's (MSTRF's) site in Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth, Mid-Wales. The 46.5 MHz pulsed Doppler radar is used primarily for making atmospheric observations over the approximate altitude range 2 - 20 km, i.e. over most of the troposphere and the lower stratosphere - hence the term "ST-mode". Additional observations are made over the approximate altitude range 56 - 96 km, i.e. covering the mesosphere - hence the term "M-mode" (see related dataset). The instrument has been in operation, using the Dopppler Beam Swinging technique (see linked documentation for further details), since late 1989. It was intially operated on a campaign basis, but switched to quasi-continuous observations (i.e. close to 24-7 operation) in late 1997. This dataset includes radial data products, i.e. range profiles along each beam pointing direction, and the "Cartesian" data products that are derived from them in the form of altitude profiles. The latter are used for most purposes. Data products are derived from the version 3 processing scheme, which supersedes earlier versions. Further details can be found via the linked documentation. Radial data products include: signal power (relates to atmospheric structure) radial velocity (relates to wind speed along the beam pointing direction) spectral width (relates to turbulence intensity) Cartesian data products include: horizontal wind components (zonal and meridional) vertical wind velocity vertical beam signal power tropopause altitude vertical beam spectral width radar return aspect sensitivity 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.

Data from the instruments at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility near Aberystwyth in West Wales. The principal measurements made by the MST radar are of the three dimensional wind vector over the altitude range 2 - 20 km. Surface meteorological measurements from the radar site, ceilometer data, sky camera images and wind speed and direction recorded from a 10m tower located 6km away are also available. Other instruments at the facility have included one of the Met Office's boundary layer wind profilers and NCAS's boundary layer wind profiler.

10m surface wind speed and direction data are available from instruments mounted on a 10m tower at the Frongoch site, 6km away from the main Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility's site in Wales. Wind direction is obtained from a Vector Instruments W200P wind vane and wind speeds from a Vector Instruments A100R anemometer.

Version 2 processing of data from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar near Aberystwyth in West Wales. The principal measurements made by the MST radar are of the three dimensional wind vector over the altitude range 2 - 20 km, with additional measurements from the mesosphere between 65 and 80 km. These data include both the radial beam data plus the resulting Cartesian products. Surface meteorological measurements from the radar site, ceilometer data, sky camera images and wind speed and direction recorded from a 10m tower located 6km away are also available. Other instruments at the facility have included one of the Met Office's boundary layer wind profilers and NCAS's boundary layer wind profiler.

Surface wind measurements are available from the Vaisala WXT510 surface meteorology instrument deployed at the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility, Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth in West Wales from 2007 to 2015. Wind speed and direction are measured by a WINDCAP (R) sensor which consists of an array of three equally-spaced ultrasonic transducers. These transducers are situated approximately 11 cm apart in a horizontal plane, leading to minimum, mean, and maximum values of speed and direction to be recorded. Data are available in netCDF formatted data files to all CEDA registered users under the UK Open Government licence. This instrument has since been replaced by a Vaisala WXT520 surface meteorology instrument at the site. Note - the wind data from this instrument are known to be highly constrained by the valley topography in which the instrument is sited. As such it should not be used as a representation of the broad scale wind field, but may be of interest to those wishing to study valley flows.

Data from the instruments at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility near Aberystwyth in West Wales. The principal measurements made by the MST radar are of the three dimensional wind vector over the altitude range 2 - 20 km. Surface meteorological measurements from the radar site, ceilometer data, sky camera images and wind speed and direction recorded from a 10m tower located 6km away are also available. Other instruments at the facility have included one of the Met Office's boundary layer wind profilers and NCAS's boundary layer wind profiler.

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.