A Newly Calibrated Long-Term Radar Dataset of Tropical Convection

The tropics a key player for the Earth atmospheric system. Tropical convective precipitation, which is well-observed by radars, is a key indicator for the exchange of energy and water in this region. However, ground radar datasets for research in this area are quite rare and generally short term. The C-band POLarimetric (CPOL) radar stationed near Darwin (11°S, 131°E) Australia since 1998 has been extensively used for studies of tropical convection. CPOL is a research focus dual-polarization Doppler radar that has been operating quasi-continuously for more than 15 years for the Northern Australian wet season (November to May) producing more than 250,000 PPI scans.

We present a newly calibrated CPOL radar dataset that includes products at 3 levels. The Level 1 data consists of all the calibrated and filtered, corrected and raw, data for each radar scan in (1) CF/Radial format and (2) a Cartesian projection. The Level 2 data contains daily products distributed in 2 sets: (1) 2D fields, such as 2.5 km reflectivity, cloud top height, 0/17/20/40 dBZ height, rainfall rate, convective/stratiform classification and many more; and (2) 3D fields, such as 3D Winds and hydrometeor classifications. The Level 3 data is composed of daily area-averaged products (e.g., area mean rainfall, peak rainfall, area fraction, convective mass flux) and their long-term statistics.

Apart from highlighting the construction of the data set we will provide examples for its potential use in scientific investigations of atmospheric convection and its representation in models.