MC3E

The Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) took place in central Oklahoma April–May 2011. The experiment was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission Ground Validation (GV) program. The field campaign leveraged the unprecedented observing infrastructure currently available in the central United States, combined with an extensive sounding array, remote sensing and in situ aircraft observations, NASA GPM ground validation remote sensors, and new ARM instrumentation purchased with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. The overarching goal was to provide the most complete characterization of convective cloud systems, precipitation, and the environment that has ever been obtained, providing constraints for model cumulus parameterization's and space-based rainfall retrieval algorithms over land that have never before been available. The GHRC is the archive and distribution center for ground validation data collected during the MC3E Experiment . More information on the MC3E Experiment can be found at https://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/home/field-campaigns/mc3e.