GPM GROUND VALIDATION NOAA UHF 449 PROFILER MC3E

The GPM Ground Validation NOAA UHF 449 Profiler MC3E dataset was collected during the NASA supported Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E). The overarching goal was to provide the most complete characterization of convective cloud systems, precipitation, and the environment that has ever been obtained, providing constraints for model cumulus parameterizations and space-based rainfall retrieval algorithms over land that had never before been available. The Ultra High Frequency 449 MHz profiler was one of three NOAA deployed instruments which also included a Parsivel and a 2.8 GHz profiler (S-Band). The 449 MHz profiler raw data files provide estimates of the vertical air motion during precipitation from near the surface to just below the freezing level. Used together with the S-band profiler, vertical profiles of raindrop size distributions can be retrieved. The raw 449MGx profiler data consists of uncalibrated Doppler velocity spectra data in units of relative power return.