During July 2018, researchers from OU participated in the LAPSE-RATE field campaign in San Luis Valley, Colorado. The OU team completed 180 flights using three RPAS over the course of six days of operation to collect vertical profiles of the thermodynamic and kinematic state of the ABL. This article describes sampling strategies, data collection, platform intercomparibility, data quality, and the dataset’s possible applications to convective initiation, drainage flows, and ABL transitions.

This paper provides an overview of measurements collected in south-central Colorado (USA) during the 2018 LAPSE-RATE campaign. The measurements described in this article were collected by mobile surface vehicles, including cars, trucks and vans, and include measurements of thermodynamic quantities (e.g. temperature, humidity, pressure) and winds. These measurements can be used to study the evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer at a high elevation site over a variety of conditions.

This paper provides an overview of the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE) field campaign, held from 14–20 July 2018. This field campaign spanned a one-week deployment to Colorado’s San Luis Valley, involving over 100 students, scientists, engineers, pilots, and outreach coordinators. This overview paper provides insight into the campaign for a special issue focused on the data sets collected during LAPSE-RATE.