High-resolution in situ observations of atmospheric thermodynamics using dropsondes during the Organization of Tropical East Pacific Convection (OTREC) field campaign

Abstract. The Organization of Tropical East Pacific Convection (OTREC) field campaign investigated the dynamical structure of convection in the tropical east Pacific and Caribbean. One of central data sets for this field campaign is the thermodynamic structure of the atmosphere measured by dropsondes released from the NSF/NCAR G V research aircraft. Between 7 August and 2 October 2019, 648 dropsonde were successfully released from twenty-two research flights. Soundings were launched in a grid pattern with a typical spacing of 1° longitude and 1.2° latitude and provide profiles of pressure, temperature, humidity, and winds between the surface and on average 13.3 km. Of these soundings, 636 provided complete vertical profiles of all parameters with a nominal vertical resolution between 6 to 12 m from the surface to almost flight altitude. OTREC deployed the new NRD41 dropsonde, which is the most advanced model that has been developed at NCAR. Here, we describe the data set, the processing of the measurements, and general statistics of all dropsonde observations. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.26023/EHRT-TN96-9W04 (UCAR/NCAR, 2019).