High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) IMPACTS

The High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) IMPACTS dataset consists of Equivalent reflectivity factor, Doppler velocity, Doppler velocity spectrum width, Linear Depolarization Ratio (LDR), Ocean normalized radar cross-section, Co-polarization signal-to-noise mask estimates collected by the HIWRAP onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft during the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign. IMPACTS was a three-year sequence of winter season deployments conducted to study snowstorms over the U.S. Atlantic coast. IMPACTS aimed to (1) Provide observations critical to understanding the mechanisms of snowband formation, organization, and evolution; (2) Examine how the microphysical characteristics and likely growth mechanisms of snow particles vary across snowbands; and (3) Improve snowfall remote sensing interpretation and modeling to advance prediction capabilities significantly. These data are available from January 25, 2020, through February 28, 2023, in HDF-5 format.