COARE-Met Data Center Mission

Observations of surface meteorological conditions during COARE are important and useful for defining the role of the ocean-atmosphere heat and momentum exchange in the warm pool region of the western tropical Pacific ocean. These types of observations are of relevance to various science investigations. For example, the winds are critical components for studies on ocean mixing, large-scale ocean circulation, waves, and air-sea fluxes. Similar levels of importance can be made for most of the other meteorological variables such as temperatures (both air and sea surface), humidity, barometric pressure, and perhaps other data such as precipitation or other auxiliary observations (cloud cover, recorded weather, etc.) if available. These data were observed/recorded from a number of instruments and platforms with varying degrees of accuracy and frequency during COARE.

The Data Processing Center (DPC)/Data Archive and Distribution Center (DADC) for COARE Surface Meteorological Data at Florida State University (COARE-MET) will pursue, collect, check, and distribute these data for COARE investigations. We will be making a cross-referenced, and browsable data set of all in-situ surface meteorology recording during the TOGA COARE IOP in the LSA and surrounding regions.

The quality control process will be fully described in a future publication. It will be executed in two steps. All surface meteorological data will be assessed beginning with a low-level scan. This scan will include, at a minimum, automated checks for coding errors, spurious spikes, instrument drift or failure, and unrealistic values. Each data record from each platform will be visually inspected and all data points will be flagged as either passing or failing the low-level inspection. The second step in the QC process will be the inter-comparisons of data across platforms/instruments. Comparisons between these data will be exploited to verify the data from the platforms and differences noted.

COARE-MET Flux Algorithm COARE-MET Reports Related Servers COARE Staff