Description: In-situ measurements of raindrop size distributions, fall velocities, drop number concentrations and surface rain rates recorded by an OTT Parsivel2 disdrometer named "PAR006" in Slufter, The Netherlands. Located in the Maasvlakte Rotterdam, The Slufter is a large-scale storage site for contaminated sludge in the southwestern part of the Rotterdam Maasvlakte, approximately 31 km West of the city center of Rotterdam. Along the ring dike of the Slufter, several wind turbines belong to the Windpark Slufterdam are providing electricity for the region. The same site also features a micro-rain radar "MRR005_Slufter" (since March 2022). All sensors are placed on top of an air quality monitoring container belonging to TNO, at a height of approx. 4 meters. The rough climate conditions near the coast of the North Sea, with high winds, salt, and sand creates a very challenging environment for long-term weather observations. Consequently, data availability tends to be lower than at other sites, due to frequent maintenance and technical issues.
Format: Each NetCDF file covers a full month of observations. The temporal resolution is 1 minute. Data are provided "as is", without any post-processing. The NetCDF files contain all relevant information about all the variables, attributes and units. The global attributes of the NetCDF files contain important information about the type of sensor, logging software, project contributors and history of the dataset. If a monthly file is missing, no data are available for this month.
Relevance: Optical disdrometer data are useful for studying the type, dynamics and microphysics of precipitation from the perspective of a fixed observer on the ground. The data can be used to help calibrate weather radars, improve quantitative precipitation estimates, calculate the absorption/attenuation/propagation of electromagnetic signals through the atmosphere, and quantify important physical quantities such as liquid water content, rain amount, intensity and kinetic energy.
Note: The integrated temperature sensor of PAR006 was defective between November 2022 and April 2023. During this period, unrealistic temperatures above 60 degrees were measured . Also, the temperature time series contain some large spikes, suggesting the existence of other (unknown) problems. The temperature sensor was replaced on April 3, 2023. However, some large temperature spikes persisted beyond that period until the whole circuit board failed in November 2023 due to corrosion. The sensor was then sent back to the manufacturer and repaired. Data collection resumed in August 2024.
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