NERC Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar: stratospheric and tropospheric structure and dynamics observations, version 4.0

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the Radar Facility's (MSTRF's) site in Capel Dewi, near Aberystwyth, Mid-Wales.

This dataset contains time-series of vertical profiles of derived atmospheric dynamics (wind speed, direction) and structure (indications of refractive index structures and turbulence) from observations taken from the 46.5 MHz pulsed Doppler radar. It is primarily used for making atmospheric observations over the approximate altitude range 2 - 20 km, i.e. of the free troposphere (above the boundary layer) and the lower stratosphere, known as the "ST-mode". Additional observations are made over the approximate altitude range 56 - 96 km, i.e. covering the mesosphere - known as the "M-mode" (see related dataset); hence the term "MST" radar.

The instrument has been in operation, using the Doppler Beam Swinging technique (see linked documentation for further details), since late 1989. It was initially operated on a campaign basis, but switched to quasi-continuous observations (i.e. close to 24-7 operation) in late 1997. In 2011 the radar system underwent renovation with significant improvements in radar performance.

The version 4.0 (v4.0) data processing scheme is closely related to the version 3 (v3) scheme and uses v3 Cartesian files as input. The main difference is that the horizontal wind components in the v4 Cardinal files represent time averages, which have a smaller random measurement error compared to the single cycle estimates in the v3 Cartesian files.

Data products available from the v4 Cardinal files include time-series profiles of:

- eastward wind

- northward wind

- upward wind

- (radar return) signal power (giving an indication of atmospheric structure) - also known as echo power

- (beam broadening) corrected spectral width (giving a measure of turbulence intensity)

- tropopause altitude and sharpness

A full list of variables will be added to this record in due course.

Quick look plots for these data are available - see related links under the "docs" tab below.

Note - some files are released marked as '-suspect'. These have been released to permit early access to the data where the majority of data are known to pass quality control, but a small, limited part of the data have been identified as being 'suspect'. An internal remark about the suspect data may be found within the file's metadata 'comments' attribute.

Date (Publication): 2017-08-17T08:34:49

Date (Creation): 2017-08-17T08:34:49

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48

Citation identifier: Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / 86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Natural Environment Research Council Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere Radar Facility at Aberystwyth (MSTRF)		unknown	Author
Unavailable	Hooper, David A.	Unavailable	Author
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Unavailable	Vaughan, Geraint	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
Unavailable	Hooper, David A.	Unavailable	pointofContact
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Daily

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

MST Radar
NERC
troposphere
stratosphere
wind speed
wind direction
profiles
echo power
turbulence

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for a CEDA account to gain access.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/missing_licence.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under unstated use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 2011-04-30T23:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are NetCDF formatted.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/mst/data/nerc-mstrf-radar-mst/v4-0/st-mode/cardinal/	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://mst.nerc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mstlog_public/mst_event_search.py	MST radar facility instrument performance log

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/mst/plots/st-mode	MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere data parameter plots (winds, echo power, shear)

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/mst/plots/st-diagnostics	MST Radar Facility radar stratosphere/troposphere diagnostic parameter plots (secondary signals, beam comparisons, theta-s compensation factors)

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Data are acquired by the MST radar facility and sent to Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) within an hour of acquisition. Data are then immediately ingested into the CEDA Archives.

Metadata

File identifier: 86d964d18ac242a58e13bb8d1c849b48 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere (MST) Radar Facility: surface and upper air meteorology measurements from Aberystwyth, mid-Wales
bd095d86e4a9f0c706b08058dbad3b31

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-03-16T03:10:56

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

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