SAMURAI analysis of dynamic and thermodynamic variables and convective frequency in 20 African easterly waves using satellite brightness temperatures

This dataset includes analysis fields of various thermodynamic and
dynamical variables utilizing the Spline Analysis at Mesoscale Utilizing
Radar and Aircraft Instrumentation (SAMURAI) of 20 selected cases of
African easterly waves (AEWs), associated with research flights during the
NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) in 2006 and the
Convective Processes Experiment - Cabo Verde (CPEX-CV) in 2022. Each
SAMURAI analysis uses ERA5 at 1200 UTC as the background field and
incorporates aircraft observations from the NASA DC-8 by performing a
time-space correction due to the movement of the wave. Observations from
dropsondes, flight level instruments, the High-Altitude Monolithic
Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR), and the
Doppler aerosol wind (DAWN) lidar were incorporated for the 2022 cases,
and just dropsondes and flight level data for the 2006 cases. Each SAMURAI
analysis grid is centered on a PV centroid (point that maximizes the area
integrated potential vorticity in the lower troposphere), is 1000 x 1000
km (± 500 km from the center) with a 10 km horizontal grid spacing and 1
km vertical grid spacing. An .nc file is provided for each case, including
thermodynamic and dynamical variables provided by SAMURAI, except for
potential vorticity (PV), which was calculated using a metpy function. The
frequency of occurrence of clear air (Prob_clear), shallow/moderate
(Prob_sha), and deep (Prob_deep) convection over 6 hours (9000 UTC to 15
UTC) for each of the 20 cases was calculated and provided as an .nc file.
The spatial frequency of each classification type was calculated for each
case by counting the grid points that had each type of convection across
the images over the 6 hours and dividing by the total number of images (12
for 2006 cases and 36 for 2022 cases). The fields match the SAMURAI
analysis center, grid spacing, and horizontal and vertical boundaries for
each case. This dataset can be used to assess the thermodynamic and
dynamical structure of AEWs and their relationship to convective
organization.