HEFEX III: WindRanger Doppler lidar observations and ICON-LES simulations at Hintereisferner glacier (Austria)

This dataset contains Doppler lidar wind observations and high-resolution atmospheric model simulations collected and produced during the HEFEX III field campaign at Hintereisferner. Doppler lidar observations (2025-08-07 to 2025-08-31) The observational component consists of wind measurements obtained with a WindRanger Doppler lidar system deployed on the glacier. The instrument provides measurements of: wind speed wind direction eastward wind u northward wind v upward air velocity w for a measurement height up to approximately 200 m above ground level. The WindRanger system produces 10-minute averaged measurements, which are generated internally by the instrument. In addition to wind variables, the dataset includes quality control variables provided by the lidar system, allowing users to assess the reliability of individual measurements. Model simulations (2025-08-05 to 2025-09-05) The dataset also contains large-eddy simulations performed with ICON in LES mode (ICON-LES) at a horizontal resolution of 51 m for the same time period as the lidar observations. To enable comparison with the lidar measurements, the dataset provides time series extracted from the model grid cell corresponding to the lidar location. The model output includes: wind speed wind direction eastward wind u northward wind v upward air velocity w The simulations provide values for the lowest 75 model levels, corresponding to approximately 2500 m above ground level. Model data are provided as 30-minute averages. Processing Steps For L1 processing of the observational data, the following filters and thresholds were applied: SNR ≥ -24 valid percentage ≥ 60% quality wind Speed ≤ 30 m/s u, v ≤ 25 m/s w ≤ 10 m/s Furthermore, a despiking algorithm was applied: remove values of u, v, w, spd which are outside $(3+0.3 \times i) \times \sigma$ over a 2 hour window, $i$ is number of iterations, $\sigma$ is one standard deviation remove values of u, v, w, spd which are outside $(2+0.3 \times i) \times \sigma$ over the 5 levels centered vertically around each respective level Data structure The dataset includes: WindRanger Doppler lidar observations associated quality control variables from the lidar system ICON-LES wind simulations extracted at the lidar location metadata describing variables, units, and averaging procedures Purpose This dataset enables: evaluation of high-resolution atmospheric simulations against remote sensing observations investigation of wind structures above alpine glaciers analysis of glacier wind dynamics and atmospheric boundary-layer processes