PISTON 2018 Research Vessel (RV) Thompson ship datasets of ocean, atmosphere, and air-sea interaction

PISTON completed three total shipboard cruises (this doi), deployed eight drifting ocean profiling floats and two full-depth ocean moorings, collaborated with a Japanese research vessel collecting similar data, and also made use of soundings from nearby islands. These activities took place in the Philippine Sea, which is in the tropical northwestern Pacific Ocean north of Palau, between August 2018 - September 2019, with each dataset spanning a slightly different amount of time.

There were two US research vessels involved in PISTON: R/V Thomas G. Thompson in Aug-Sept and Sept-Oct 2018 (this doi) and R/V Sally Ride in Sept 2019. The first 2018 cruise coincided collaborative activities with R/V Mirai. The 2019 cruise coincided with the NASA CAMP2Ex airborne field experiment (Clouds, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes-Philippines Experiment, please see more info below).

The two specialized moorings were deployed north of Palau and collected data from August 2018 - Oct 2019 to document a time series of ocean characteristics beneath typhoons and other tropical weather disturbances. Toward the same goal, eight profiling ocean floats were also deployed ahead of typhoons in 2018. For characterization of clouds and precipitation, the PISTON shipboard instrument payload included a scanning C-band dual-polarization Doppler radar (SEA-POL), a vertically-pointing Doppler W-band radar, and multiple vertically- and horizontally-scanning lidars.

Rawinsondes were launched from the ships for atmospheric profiling. Additional radiosonde and precipitation radar data were collected from R/V Mirai via an international collaboration. Regular soundings were also archived from islands neighboring the Philippines and the Philippine Sea: Dongsha Island, Taiping Island, Yap, Palau, and Guam.

Additional atmospheric sampling from the PISTON R/V Thompson 2018 and Sally Ride 2019 cruises included an electric field meter and disdrometer in 2018, and all-sky camera images in 2019. To document near-surface meteorological conditions, air-sea fluxes, and upper-ocean variability including ocean vertical profiles on these cruises, instruments were deployed on and towed from the ship. Additional profiles of ocean acoustics and oceanic chemistry were not archived but are available upon request by James N. Moum, Oregon State University, jim.moum@oregonstate.edu.

A forecast team analyzed and predicted conditions of the weather and ocean throughout the PISTON experiment, which were not archived but are available upon request for future modeling and observational analysis studies (contacts: Sue Chen, US Naval Research Lab Monterey, sue.chen@nrlmry.navy.mil and Michael M. Bell, Colorado State University, mmbell@colostate.edu). There are five total DOIs related to PISTON, separated by ship (and therefore year) as well as other platforms/locations that span multiple years: doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/PISTON2018-ONR-NOAA/RVTHOMPSON/DATA001 (this doi) doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/PISTON2019-ONR-NOAA/RVSALLYRIDE/DATA001 doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/PISTON2018-2019-ONR-NOAA/AUTONOMOUS/DATA001 doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/PISTON2018-2019-ONR-NOAA/ISLANDS/DATA001 doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/PISTON2018-ONR-NOAA/RVMIRAI/DATA001 The CAMP2Ex 2019 data DOI is: doi.org/DOI: 10.5067/Suborbital/CAMP2EX2018/DATA001 The CAMP2Ex (Clouds, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes-Philippines Experiment, 2019) and PISTON (Propagation of Intra-Seasonal Tropical Oscillations, 2018-2019) were two field studies conducted collaboratively in the Southeast Asian region.

While each study had its own set of science objectives, there were common and complementary science goals and instrument payloads between these two projects. Consequently, a synergistic partnership was established at the very beginning of the projects and a coordinated sampling strategy was developed to extend spatial coverage and obtain temporal context information, which benefits the analysis of both data sets for achieving the science objectives.