First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Marine Stratocumulus Colorado State University (CSU) Tethered Balloon Data

The First ISCCP Regional Experiments have been designed to improve data products and cloud/radiation parameterizations used in general circulation models (GCMs). Specifically, the goals of FIRE are (1) to seek the basic understanding of the interaction of physical processes in determining life cycles of cirrus and marine stratocumulus systems and the radiative properties of these clouds during their life cycles and (2) to investigate the interrelationships between ISCCP data, GCM parameterizations, and higher space and time resolution cloud data. To-date, four intensive field-observation periods were planned and executed: a cirrus IFO (October 13 - November 2, 1986); a marine stratocumulus IFO off the southwestern coast of California (June 29 - July 20, 1987); a second cirrus IFO in southeastern Kansas (November 13 - December 7, 1991); and a second marine stratocumulus IFO in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean (June 1 - June 28, 1992). Each mission combined coordinated satellite, airborne, and surface observations with modeling studies to investigate the cloud properties and physical processes of the cloud systems.This data set was collected from the Colorado State University tethered platform. The balloon was flown during the FIRE Marine Stratocumulus IFO on San Nicolas Island. The data set has been interpolated to the times of the cloud microphysics data, which has a five second interval between points.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field	Value
Maintainer	Earthdata Forum
Last Updated	October 20, 2026, 11:05 (UTC)
Created	April 1, 2025, 15:47 (UTC)
Identifier	10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/FIRE/0125
Modified	2026-10-15T20:12:07Z
Theme	{"Earth Science"}
accessLevel	public
bureauCode	{026:00}
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id	9147f130-9b3c-4086-bebd-5f1e2f23d306
harvest_source_id	b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title	Science Discovery Engine
license	https://www.usa.gov/government-works
programCode	{026:000}
publisher	NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	94532aaeda07a4556f35ab3cabdc1a7c13acfb961105fcdaeb9636087959075e
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -119.41, "EastBoundingCoordinate": -119.39, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": 33.23, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 33.25}]]
temporal	1987-07-07/1987-07-14