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GALE
Science Objectives: -Describing the airflow, mass and the moisture fields in East Coast winter storms with special emphasis on mesoscale and air-sea interaction processes contributing to cyclogenesis. -Understanding the physical mechanisms controlling the formation and rapid development of East Coast storms. -Developing and testing numerical models for the prediction of East Coast storms. Project Description: The Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE) was an extensive study of the atmospheric processes involved in the development of winter storms on the East Coast of the United States. GALE was originally initiated in September 1982 by a group of university scientists representing Drexel University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, State University of New York and the University of Washington. This project was mainly supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Other contributors included the Army Research Office and the Corps of Engineers, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Local support was supplied by the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority and Army Reserve National Guard and by the North Carolina State University Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. The field phase of GALE was conducted from 15 January through 15 March 1986. The GALE Operations Center was located at Raleigh-Durham Airport with the main observing network deployed throughout Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and the Atlantic coastal waters. The GALE project office is located at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado. The experiment was designed to focus on three areas: the Inner, Regional and Outer GALE areas. The Inner GALE area, 500 km wide, was centered on the coast and extended 1000km from Virginia to Georgia. It examined for convection, boundary layer fluxes and micro-physical processes. The Regional GALE area, which was 1000km wide from the Appalachian Ridge to 500km offshore and stretched 1500km from Florida to New Jersey, was studied for cyclogenesis and frontogenesis. The Outer GALE area extended from the Great Plains to east of the Regional area and from New England to the Gulf of Mexico, with synoptic features of cyclones and jet stream circulations being the main points of interest. Data Sources: The GALE observing region covered the eastern half of the United States in order to incorporate continental and marine effects. Data was collected west of the Appalachians in order to evaluate the orographic effect on modifying large-scale systems or establishing mesoscale systems. Data was also collected near the coast and offshore where cyclogenesis occurs; consequently this was the main area of interest. Rawinsonde observations were supplied by the National Weather Service (NWS) and NCAR along with dropwindsondes from NOAA measuring standard meteorological parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction). Meteorological satellites GOES-6, NOAA-9, NOAA-6, DMSP F-6, DMSP F-7 and NIMBUS-7 were available to provide radiance measurements. Surface observations were taken from a special GALE ground-station network (PAM, Portable Automated Mesonet), NOAA buoys and platforms, micro-met towers, military stations, lightning detectors, current meters and tide gauges to measure standard parameters along with rainfall, sea surface temperature (SST) and sea-level height. Two research vessels, the Cape Hatteras and the Endeavor, patrolled the waters off the North and South Carolina coasts respectively, collecting surface and atmospheric sounding data as well as SST and sub-surface data. NOAA, NASA and NCAR aircraft gathered measurements of air motion, cloud physics, air chemistry and thermodynamics in the boundary layer. The NWS provided a standard radar network while NASA, NOAA, NCAR, MIT and the University of Washington supplied a doppler-radar network to measure air motions and distribution of precipitation. Data Products: Drexel University is the central archive and distribution center for GALE data. The GALE Data Center (GDC) is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. 1. AIRCRAFT: NCAR (turbulence, flight level, cloud physics), NOAA (flight level, doppler radar reflectivity, cloud physics, dropwindsonde, turbulence), University of Washington (flight level), NASA (microwave moisture sounding, lidar), MIT (flight level) and AIR FORCE (flight level) data are available in digitized form. Microfilm of NCAR parameter plots and video recordings of aircraft missions as well as hardcopy logs of all aircraft missions are also available. 2. SOUNDING: Master sounding file containing 10mb interval data is available in digitized form. Other products include the Regional Analysis Forecast System (RAFS) (initalized and forecast model fields, soundings, observed/model difference soundings and statistics), National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Upper Air Products (NWS, SRRS soundings), NCAR CLASS soundings, Special Rawinsonde Data (Navy and Canadian soundings), dropwindsonde and minisonde data are also in digitized form. Skew-T diagrams for selected soundings, constant pressure charts and RAFS difference file tables are available on hardcopy. 3. RADAR: NCAR CP-3 and CP-4, MIT WR-73, NASA SPANDAR and University of Washington TPQ-11 Doppler data as well as NWS data is available in digitized format. NWS and NMC radar charts on microfilm, along with color slides of NWS radar images and a hardcopy of the NWS radar summary are also available. 4. SATELLITE: GOES-6 (VAS imagery, soundings, SST), NOAA-9 (TOVS and AVHRR imagery, soundings and NMC SST), NOAA-6 (TOVS imagery), DMSP F-6, F-7 (imagery and soundings) and NIMBUS-7 (TOMS) data are available in digitized form. GOES-6 images are are also available on videotape and hardcopy, along with SST Analyses, TOMS Data Atlas and NOAA Polar Orbiter Data User Guide. 5. BOUNDARY LAYER: NWS, NCDC and PAM surface observation network, NWS precipitation network, military observations, snowfall observations, TVA wind energy, met-tower, lightning network and surface marine, ship and buoy data are available in digitized form. NMC surface analyses are on microfilm while ship, PAM, NWS snowfall and surface marine data are on hardcopy. 6. OCEANGRAPHIC: Hydrographic data from R/V Endeavor and Cape Hatteras, current temperature/pressure mooring data, bathythermograph and coastal tide gauge data are available in digitized form. The CORE preliminary data report is available on hardcopy. *** The GALE Compact Disc containing Aircraft, Sounding, Satellite and Surface data is available from the University of Washington. Access software is also available for IBM PC computers and the DEC Microvax II. For more information, contact: Cliff Mass University of Washigton Atmospheric Sciences Dept. AK-40 Seattle, WA 98195 Project Archive Contact: Edward Hartnett GALE Data Center Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-895-2786 OMNET > GALE.DAT Project Director Contact: Dr. Richard Dirks GALE Project Office National Center for Atmospheric Research PO Box 3000 Boulder, CO 80307-3000 303-497-8841 References: Dirks, R.A. J.P. Kuettner, and J.A. Moore, 1988: Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment(GALE): An Overview. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 69, 148-160. Hartnett, Ed, 1988: GALE Data Users Guide.