This dataset contains composite temperature, humidity and wind profiles, plus derived products, from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science's Atmospheric Measurement Facility (NCAS AMF) radiosondes launched from the Swedish Icebreaker Oden durning Arctic Cloud Summer Expedition (ACSE). ACSE took place in the Arctic during summer 2014. These measurements were used to complement a suite of other observations taken during the cruise. Those of the UK contribution, as well as selected other data, are available within the associated data collection in the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) archives. Other cruise data may be available in the NOAA ACSE and The Bolin Centre for Climate Research SWERUS (SWEdish-Russian-US) holdings - see online resources linked to this record. These data consist of individual radiosonde profiles as 2D time/height fields, with all profiles interpolated onto a fixed vertical grid for ease of analysis/plotting across the outward (leg 1) and return (leg 2) parts of the expedition. The vertical grid used is: 1m step to 5km, 10m step between 5 and 12 km, 50m step between 12 and 20 km. The data also includes derived variables (potential temperature etc). Barbara Brooks (NCAS AMF) was responsible for the radiosonde ascents during the voyage and for the original data, whilst Ian Brookes prepared these data for archiving. The Arctic Cloud Summer Expedition (ACSE) was a collaboration between the University of Leeds, the University of Stockholm, and NOAA-CIRES. ACSE aimed to study the response of Arctic boundary layer cloud to changes in surface conditions in the Arctic Ocean as a working package of the larger Swedish-Russian-US Investigation of Climate, Cryosphere and Carbon interaction (SWERUS-C3) Expedition in Summer 2014. This expedition was a core component to the overall SWERUS-C3 programme and was supported by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. ACSE took place during a 3-month cruise of the Swedish Icebreaker Oden from Tromso, Norway to Barrow, Alaska and back over the summer of 2014. During this cruise ACSE scientists measured surface turbulent exchange, boundary layer structure, and cloud properties. Many of the measurements used remote sensing approaches - radar, lidar, and microwave radiometers - to retrieve vertical profiles of the dynamic and microphysical properties of the lower atmosphere and cloud. The UK participation of ACSE was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, grant: NE/K011820/1) and involved instrumentation from the Atmospheric Measurement Facility of the UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS AMF). This dataset collection contains data mainy from the UK contribution with some additional data from other institutes also archived to complement the suite of meteorological measurements.

PILOT reports describe measurements reported up to four times daily by radiosondes at worldwide fixed land stations. The dataset contains measurements of wind speed and direction. The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km and measurements are usually taken every 2 seconds. These data are provided as-is from the Met Office and so will need the message components bringing together for each ascent The PILOT data contain the following observations: Wind speed at standard pressure levels Vertical wind shear Maximum wind level The data comprise vertical profiles of temperature, dew-point temperature, wind speed and wind direction at standard and significant pressure levels. The standard pressure levels are 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50, 30, 20 and 10 hPa. Significant pressure levels are calculated according to the Met Office criteria and constitute levels at which significant events occur in the profile, e.g temperature inversions. The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km. Generally there are up to 4 ascents per day from each station, though some sites may only have 1 or 2 ascents. Ascent times are typically around 00, 06, 12 and 18 UT. A maximum wind level is defined as a level at which the wind speed is greater than that observed immediately above and below that level..

The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) is an instrument on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) which measured global ClO, O3, H2O, temperature and SO2. Data are version 4 and public (gridded in time or latitude along the satellite track) between 80S - 80N, approximately 10-60 km in the vertical, from October 1991 to June 1997. This directory tree now contains Version 4 MLS data files, in subdirectories for constituent and year, for FTP to remote machines. The data is held in IEEE binary files as supplied by the Goddard DAAC. Remember to switch to BINARY mode when transferring these files by FTP. New software to read the data files is also available.

Species profiles (SPEC files) and revision information (INDEX) from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), an instrument on board the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) which used the solar occultation technique to measure global profiles of aerosol extinction, temperature, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and water vapour in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. Version 1 of the data consist of monthly mean global image maps and associated gridded data for the period 1985-1993. Version 6.2, available for the period October 1984 to August 2005, superseded version 6.1 , containing INDEX and SPEC files for the period October 1984 to July 2000. Access to this dataset is partially restricted. Species information includes aerosol extinction profiles at 1020, 525, 453, and 385 nanometers, number density profiles of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, plus molecular density and mixing ratio profiles of water vapour. It also includes aerosol surface area density and effective radius profiles, and retrieved molecular density for the middle atmosphere (40-75 km). All profiles are at 0.5-km vertical resolution. These products are nearly global in coverage, with data spanning from 80 North to 80 South.

Species profiles (SPEC files) and revision information (INDEX) from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), an instrument on board the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) which used the solar occultation technique to measure global profiles of aerosol extinction, temperature, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and water vapour in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. Version 1 of the data consist of monthly mean global image maps and associated gridded data for the period 1985-1993. Version 6.1 contains INDEX and SPEC files for the period October 1984 to July 2000 and was superseded by version 6.2, available for the period October 1984 to August 2005. Access to this dataset is partially restricted. Species information includes aerosol extinction profiles at 1020, 525, 453, and 385 nanometers, number density profiles of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, plus molecular density and mixing ratio profiles of water vapour. It also includes aerosol surface area density and effective radius profiles, and retrieved molecular density for the middle atmosphere (40-75 km). All profiles are at 0.5-km vertical resolution. These products are nearly global in coverage, with data spanning from 80 North to 80 South.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the Radar Facility's (MSTRF's) site in Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth, Mid-Wales. This dataset contains time-series of vertical profiles of derived atmospheric dynamics (wind speed, direction) and structure (indications of refractive index structures and turbulence) from observations taken from the 46.5 MHz pulsed Doppler radar. It is primarily used for making atmospheric observations over the approximate altitude range 2 - 20 km, i.e. of the free troposphere (above the boundary layer) and the lower stratosphere, known as the "ST-mode". Additional observations are made over the approximate altitude range 56 - 96 km, i.e. covering the mesosphere - known as the "M-mode" (see related dataset); hence the term "MST" radar. The instrument has been in operation, using the Doppler Beam Swinging technique (see linked documentation for further details), since late 1989. It was initially operated on a campaign basis, but switched to quasi-continuous observations (i.e. close to 24-7 operation) in late 1997. In 2011 the radar system underwent renovation with significant improvements in radar performance. The version 4.0 (v4.0) data processing scheme is closely related to the version 3 (v3) scheme and uses v3 Cartesian files as input. The main difference is that the horizontal wind components in the v4 Cardinal files represent time averages, which have a smaller random measurement error compared to the single cycle estimates in the v3 Cartesian files. Data products available from the v4 Cardinal files include time-series profiles of: - eastward wind - northward wind - upward wind - (radar return) signal power (giving an indication of atmospheric structure) - also known as echo power - (beam broadening) corrected spectral width (giving a measure of turbulence intensity) - tropopause altitude and sharpness A full list of variables will be added to this record in due course. Quick look plots for these data are available - see related links under the "docs" tab below. Note - some files are released marked as '-suspect'. These have been released to permit early access to the data where the majority of data are known to pass quality control, but a small, limited part of the data have been identified as being 'suspect'. An internal remark about the suspect data may be found within the file's metadata 'comments' attribute.