Creating the Long-Term T-28 Instrumented Research Aircraft Data Archive

The T-28 instrumented research aircraft participated in research projects from 1970 through 2003 and was flown by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences (IAS) at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT). Beginning in 1986 it was operated as a national facility under a Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The T-28 participated in projects investigating convective storm processes with an emphasis on hail development studies in which the T-28 penetrated storms containing hail up to 5 cm in diameter. To preserve the extensive project data that was collected over the years, the SDSMT and the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) collaborated to create a comprehensive archive of these data (including supporting datasets) which is available through a web site located at EOL. http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/t28/ . These web pages provide a history and documentation of the T-28 aircraft, description of T-28 instrumentation, list of projects in which the T-28 participated, photographs, access to publications (many older paper documents have been digitized), related relevant links, and data access. The digital data from the early 1990's through 2003 are available in the archive along with other project supporting data sets, such as radar data, pilot reports, instrumentation documentation, and videos taken during the flights. These supporting datasets have been located, rescued, and re-processed to be included in this archive and will support continued analysis and interpretation of the aircraft data. Visualization tools have been developed to view the T-28 data online, and a software application can be downloaded to display the types and concentrations of cloud particles. The T-28 data and supporting data from these research projects involving thunderstorm processes have been documented and preserved for long-term data stewardship (a good model for other facility data) so that future generations can easily access and analyze the data from these important studies.