Global Hydrology and Resource Center (GHRC)
The GHRC provides both historical and current Earth science data, information, and products from satellite, airborne, and surface-based instruments. The GHRC acquires basic data streams and produces derived products from many instruments spread across a variety of instrument platforms.
Caption: This TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) image shows Sea Surface
Temperature during a 3-day period, September 20-22, 2004, during which Hurricane
Jeanne aimlessly churned in the Eastern Atlantic--before heading west to punish
the state of Florida with its fourth direct hit of the 2004 hurricane
season.
Available Data
Lightning Data Products
Space-based lightning observations are obtained from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), the Optical Transient Detector (OTD), and surface validation networks in the continental United States and Brazil.
- LIS and OTD
(Resolution: OTD, about 70 km; LIS, about 4 km | Availability: LIS, 1998 to present; OTD, 1995 to 2000 | Coverage: OTD, 70° N to 70° S; LIS, 35° N to 35° S)The world's first space-based lightning sensors are capable of detecting and locating lightning events during day-and-night conditions with high detection efficiency. The LIS sensor contains a staring imager which is optimized to locate and detect lightning with storm-scale resolution of 3-6 km (3 at nadir, 6 at limb) over a large region (550-550 km) of Earth's surface. The field of view (FOV) is sufficient to observe a point on Earth or a cloud for 80 seconds, adequate to estimate the flashing rate of many storms. The instrument records the time of occurrence of a lightning event, measures the radiant energy, and estimates the location.
Passive Microwave Data Products
Global hydrological parameters such as sea surface temperature, atmospheric water vapor, wind direction, and atmospheric temperature are derived from several passive microwave instruments on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), NOAA-15, NOAA-16, NOAA-17, and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-8 through F-15 satellite series.
The GHRC hosts data for Distributed Information Services for Climate and Ocean products and Visualizations for Earth Research (DISCOVER), a NASA REASoN (Research, Education, Applications Solutions Network) project. DISCOVER is the successor to the Passive Microwave Earth Science Information Partner (PM-ESIP), providing measurement of maximum tropical cyclone wind speeds, global tropospheric and atmospheric temperatures, and observations of tropical rainfall, sea surface temperature, and wind speed.
- Global Tropospheric and Stratospheric Deep Layer
Temperature Data
(Resolution: 22 to 90 km | Availability: 1979 to present | Coverage: Global)Data are derived from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU). This long-term measurement series contains three products, each giving temperature data averaged over a particular depth range of the atmospheric (lower stratosphere, middle troposphere, and lower troposphere).
- SSM/I
(Resolution: 12.5 km @ 85 GHz; 25 km all others | Availability: F13: 1995-05-03 to present, F14: 1997-05-10 to present, F15: 2000-02-23 to present | Coverage: Global)Brightness temperatures (7 channels), water vapor, wind speed, and ocean wind speed data products are available.
- TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI)
(Resolution: About 25 km | Availability: 1997 to present | Coverage: 35° N to 35° S)Data products include water vapor, cloud water, ocean wind speed, and sea surface temperatures.
Field Experiment Data Sets
- Airborne Passive Microwave Radiometer (AMPR)
(Resolution: 0.6 to 2.8 km at nadir | Availability: 1990 to 2001 for numerous field campaigns | Coverage: Field-campaign dependent)AMPR instrument data sets at 85, 37, 19, and 10 GHz were acquired on board the NASA ER-2 during the CAMEX-1, CAMEX-2, CAMEX-3, CAMEX-4, Texas and Florida Under-flights (TEFLUN), First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional Experiment-Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE-ACE), and Convection and Precipitation/ Electrification Experiment (CaPE) field experiments.
- Altus Cloud Electrification Study (ACES)
(Resolution: Data set dependent | Availability: August 2002 | Coverage: Southwestern Florida)Based out of the Key West Naval Air Facility, conducted in August 2002, ACES contributed important electrical and optical measurements not available from other sources. Making use of the Altus II uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV), scientists collected several types of electrical data by flying over the tops of thunderstorms.
- Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX)
The CAMEX archive provides data from the CAMEX-3 and CAMEX-4 field experiments. These experiments produced high-resolution spatial and temporal information of hurricane structure, dynamics, and motion.
- CAMEX-3
(Resolution: Data set dependent | Availability: August to September 1998 | Coverage: Western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico)CAMEX-3 is the third field campaign in the CAMEX series. CAMEX-3 holdings include hurricane research data sets derived from a variety of passive microwave, radar, infrared, visible, lidar, interferometer, electric field, and lightning instruments on board the NASA ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft, as well as surface station instruments on Andros Island, Bahamas.
- CAMEX-4
(Resolution: Data set dependent | Availability: August to September 2001 | Coverage: Western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico)The fourth field campaign in the CAMEX series was based out of Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida, from August to September 2001. CAMEX-4 focused on the study of tropical cyclone (hurricane) development, tracking, intensification, and landfalling impacts using NASA-funded aircraft and surface remote sensing instrumentation. Through use of the NASA DC-8 and ER-2 aircraft along with the NOAA P-3 and (for the first time) Aerosonde (a small UAV), data were collected in the vicinity of several tropical storms and hurricanes. The experiments were designed to provide data that will allow scientists to better understand the dynamic nature of these dangerous storms.
- CAMEX-3
Future Data Sets
The GHRC will be supporting the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) research experiment in the summer of 2005. The GHRC will be providing real-time and static web support, data ingest, and archive for the project PI's. The GHRC will also be the data distribution and user services site for many of the data sets that will be created from this experiment. The TCSP is a follow-on to the previous CAMEX experiments. This experiment will be studying the dynamics and thermodynamics of precipitating cloud systems, including tropical cyclones, over the tropical eastern Pacific. Targeted datasets will be collected using the NASA ER-2 research aircraft, in synergy with remote sensing observations provided by NASA and other agencies. These observations will be used to answer key questions pertaining to the origins and lifecycle of weather disturbances in the tropics. Analyses of datasets will address a wide variety of atmospheric space and time scales, ranging from the convective through the synoptic. Investigations will also be conducted to improve upon numerical modeling studies of tropical cyclogenesis, including wave-to-depression transition in the western Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Pacific Oceans. Aircraft from the NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HRD) will fly coordinated missions with the NASA research aircraft to investigate developing tropical disturbances.
GHRC Data Pool
As part of the NASA-funded DISCOVER project, the GHRC and UAH have developed a Data Pool environment to support the automated online data ordering of Earth science data sets, in particular passive microwave and other related products.
Data Access
Most data are publicly available, although some restrictions apply for the distribution of commercially obtained data. Access to data, data search and order, and information about GHRC's data sets can be found at the Web site given below.
For assistance or additional information, contact:
GHRC User Services
Global Hydrology and Climate Center
Phone: +1 256-961-7932
Fax: +1 256-961-7723
E-mail: ghrc@eos.nasa.gov or userservices@nsstc.nasa.gov