ASR 00 - ATD Introduction

ATD Introduction

ATD develops and operates atmospheric observing facilities and provides design and fabrication services, field support, data processing and analysis tools and long-term data support to researchers at NCAR and throughout the university community. These facilities include two aircraft, one ground-based and one airborne Doppler radar, and a variety of airborne and surface-based in situ and remote sensing systems. All systems can be deployed to locations worldwide in support of national and international weather and climate field research programs.

In FY 2000, ATD's array of observing systems consisted of:

The Lockheed Electra and the Lockheed C-130, both large, four-engine, turboprop research aircraft;
The airborne ELDORA radar, presently installed on the Electra;
S-Pol, ATD's ground-based, portable S-band dual polarization Doppler radar;
SABL, the scanning aerosol backscatter lidar, which operates in a ground-based as well as an airborne mode;
AIMR, an airborne scanning imaging microwave radiometer;
BINET, a bistatic radar receiver network to retrieve dual Doppler winds;
Five fixed and one mobile GPS/Loran Atmospheric Sounding Systems (GLASS);
Four fixed Integrated Sounding Systems (ISS), each consisting of a 915 MHz wind profiler, a RASS, a standard GLASS, and an enhanced surface station;
The Integrated Surface Flux Facility (ISFF), composed of nine solar-powered Flux-PAM stations and four ASTER line-powered stations.
Two four-channel GPS dropsonde systems.

These systems are maintained and operated by ATD's Research Aviation Facility (RAF), Remote Sensing Facility (RSF) and Surface and Sounding Systems Facility (SSSF). The development and deployment of these observing systems is also supported by two other groups within ATD: the Research Data Program (RDP), which is responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of computer networks, installation of user software and analysis packages from outside investigators, conversion of data sets into standard formats for inclusion into field data catalogs, and support of network, data, and RDP software during operations; and the Design and Fabrication Services (DFS) group, which provides engineering design (Mechanical Design Group), instrument and equipment fabrication (Machine Shop), and logistics and maintenance support (Logistics Group) to ATD, NCAR, the university community and other agencies.

ATD base funds provide for operation, maintenance, and upgrading of existing observing systems, for development of new and replacement systems, and for research related to the use of these systems. These activities are described in subsequent sections.