NCSU Soundings IMPACTS

The NCSU Soundings IMPACTS dataset consists of atmospheric-sounding data collected by the North Carolina State University student sounding club. These data include vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. These rawinsondes were launched from Raleigh, NC in support of the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign. IMPACTS was a three-year sequence of winter season deployments conducted to study snowstorms over the U.S Atlantic Coast (2020-2023). The campaign aimed to (1) Provide observations critical to understanding the mechanisms of snowband formation, organization, and evolution; (2) Examine how the microphysical characteristics and likely growth mechanisms of snow particles vary across snowbands; and (3) Improve snowfall remote sensing interpretation and modeling to significantly advance prediction capabilities. The sounding data files are available in netCDF-4 format for February 20, 2020, from February 12, 2023.