Description of V2.0 of the CSU NAME surface analysis

During the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME), an unprecedented surface
data set was collected over the core monsoon region.  Observations from 157
surface sites in this region along with twice-daily QuikSCAT oceanic winds were
quality controlled and processed into a gridded data set covering the domain
90W-120W, 15N-40N at 1-h, 0.25 degree resolution for the period from 1 July to
15 August (NAME Enhanced Observing Period or EOP).  

Moisture and temperature fields over the Gulf of California (GOC) were 
estimated based on a special multi-platform merged (MPM) SST analysis produced
by Wang and Xie (2007) available at 3-h, 0.25 degree horizontal resolution,
and near-surface moisture and temperature gradients observed at a research
vessel located near the mouth of the GOC.  

Over the oceans and GoC, QuikSCAT winds were used at 00 and 12 UTC, and to aid
the analysis over the GoC, thermodynamic fields estimated from the SST
analysis, as described above, were used. Owing to the lack of data over the
oceans, grid points at 0.5 degree intersections having no surface data within a
0.4 degree radius were assigned values from NARR_NAME (Mo et al. 2007) surface
fields. The NARR_NAME products used in this study are from a special reanalysis
for the NAME EOP.  This reanalysis, which used the National Centers for
Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Climate Data Assimilation System
(RCDAS, Mesinger et al. 2006), is at 32 km, 45 vertical layers and 3-h
resolution. In addition to the usual data products that are assimilated into
the RCDAS (Mo et al. 2007), this special reanalysis used sounding data from the
NAME-enhanced upper-air network (shown in Fig. 1 of Johnson et al. 2007), the
MPM SST analysis described above, and an enhanced 3-h precipitation data set
which is converted into latent heating (Lin et al. 1999). Over land, the
assimilated rainfall data is based on combined daily gauge data (Higgins et al.
2000) and the NAME Event Rain gauge Network (NERN, Gochis et al. 2007), located
in the core of the monsoon region; over water, the CPC Morphing technique
(CMORPH) rainfall data is used.  However, no reanalysis fields were used over
land or the GoC.  Since the GoC estimated thermodynamic and NARR_NAME fields
were available at 3-h resolution, the closest observation times for these
analyses were used in generating the 1-h gridded fields.

The surface dataset consists of the following fields:
   ps - surface pressure (hPa)
   psl - pressure reduced to sea level (hPa)
   t - temperature (C)
   td - dew point temperature (C)
   q - water vapor mixing ratio (g/kg)
   u - zonal wind (m/s)
   v - meridional wind (m/s)

More details on the creation of the V2.0 surface analysis and all references
listed here can be found in Ciesielski and Johnson (2008) which is available
under the publications link and is listed below.

Send questions or comments concerning this dataset to Paul Ciesielski:
paulc@atmos.colostate.edu

Reference:

Ciesielski, P. E., and R. H. Johnson, 2008: Diurnal cycle of surface flows 
during 2004 NAME and comparison to model reanalysis. J. Climate, 21, 3890-3913.