Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP)
Introduction
The goal of the Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP) is to understand the
mechanisms responsible for the initiation of precipitating convection in the maritime,
environment of southern England; i.e. to understand why convective clouds form and
develop into precipitating clouds in a particular location.
The project will be
centred on the 3 GHz (CAMRa) and 1275 clear-air (ACROBAT) radars at Chilbolton. A
number of the new UK Universities' Facility for Atmospheric Measurement (UFAM)
mobile instruments will be deployed within the range of the radars. These include three
sodars, a Doppler Lidar, a wind profiler, an aerosol and ozone lidar, a network of
automatic weather stations, mobile radiosonde stations and a Cessna aircraft. The main
project will be conducted in June, July and August 2005. A pilot project was
conducted in July 2004.
Availability of data
Data is is currently being collected and submitted to the BADC. The data is located in the
CSIP
archive and is currently available only to individuals associated with the campaign.
Data has been collected by many data providers and organisations and is stored centrally at the BADC.
CSIP participants can apply for access to the archive to view the data.
Please see the Instructions for accessing data webpage for details.
Data, software and metadata submission
If you are a data provider, please read the
submission instructions and notes on the
filenaming convention
before using the BADC
data file uploader.
The data are stored in NetCDF and NASA-Ames formats.
If you wish to check that files are correctly formatted before uploading them
please use the
NetCDF format checker or
NASA-Ames format checker.
It is important that the data be well documented.
Please follow the BADC guidelines regarding the submission of
metadata.
Many data files contain the variable time which can be expressed in
several ways. Guidelines on the
recommended format of the time-variable header lines, units and the data values in
Nasa-Ames files are available and are based on the format used in NetCDF.
Services
- A
CSIP UKMO campaign support page has been created which has links to current images provided
by the UK Met Office. Access to this page requires acceptance of conditions laid down by the
Met Office. Project participants can apply
here.
- A
CSIP MSG campaign support page has been created which has links to current images from the MSG satellite.
Access to this page requires acceptance of conditions laid down by the
Met Office and EUMETSAT. Project participants can apply
here.
-
ECMWF forecast images for precipitation and cloud cover are available to CSIP participants.
Access to the images requires acceptance of conditions laid down by the
ECMWF and the Met Office. If not done so already, this involves completing an online application which includes the Met Office and ECMWF
agreements under which the BADC has acquired the data. Project participants can apply
here.
- Freely available medium range forecasts are available from the
ECMWF site. These provide pressure and wind speed fields.
- An online workspace has been created
for CSIP participants in order to ease cross-project
coordination and exchange of views, information and preliminary data.
The workspace is only accessible to the project participants who have been
invited.
If you are a CSIP scientist and have not been invited to
access the workspace, please contact the
BADC helpdesk.
- Help on NetCDF and
NASA Ames formats.
-
NASA-Ames file format checker
-
NetCDF file format checker
- Data file uploader
Links to further information
Citation
Natural Environment Research Council, Chilbolton Observatory [Blyth, A.] . Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP), [Internet]. British Atmospheric Data Centre, 2006-, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ufam/csip/.
Who to contact
- The CSIP Principal Investigator is
Alan Blyth (University of Leeds).
- Any queries regarding the data should be sent to the
BADC help desk.