NASA's Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC) has released the Cloud Cube Multi-Frequency Radar (CLOUDCUBE) dataset, which is derived from a low-power radar that transmits in the Ka, W, and G bands. Cloud Cube is a next generation instrument that will eventually be used with small satellites. The three radar bands offer the ability to simultaneously measure precipitation profiles, cloud particles, and liquid and ice water content in shallow clouds.
The instrument flew aboard the NASA G-III aircraft as part of the North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment (NURTURE). The campaign focused on quantifying the impact that perturbations poleward of the jet stream have on jet stream variability and high impact weather events. NURTURE provided the first mesoscale observations of antecedent tropopause structure and the near-jet environment that lead to high-impact weather events. NURTURE targeted tropopause polar vortices, dynamics supporting jet superpositions, mesoscale stratosphere-troposphere interactions, and diabatic processes.
The data are available in netCDF format for the period from January 24 through February 17, 2026.