GATE Radar Reflectivity Data from the Canadian Ship Quadra

The C-band radar aboard the Canadian ship C.C.G.S. Quadra collected reflectivity data at 1 degree by 1 km resolution at various antenna tilt angles. A single 360-degree scan at a fixed tilt angle took approximately 20 seconds to complete. A Digital Video Integrator and Processor (DVIP) converted the analog reflectivities to 8-bit digital values. The center of the first gate was 10.5 km from the radar, with equivalent reflectivities recorded for 200 gates in the radial direction.

NCAR received the binary-format Quadra radar data on half-inch magnetic tapes from the Radar Weather Observatory at McGill University in April 1977. The raw reflectivity data were converted to netCDF format in 2024, and additionally, netCDF files containing full scans (sweeps) at each tilt angle are planned for later 2024, with equivalent reflectivity values converted to dBZ.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • Bob Dattore
    dattore@ucar.edu
    NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange

Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1974-06-28
    End:  1974-09-19

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1974-06-28
Temporal Range End 1974-09-19
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format NetCDF
Standardized Resource Format NetCDF
Asset Size 0.00 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name Bob Dattore
Resource Support Email dattore@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory, McGill University
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 1980-11-04
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/E45Y-6T07
Alternate Identifier d845002
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category oceans
Progress completed
Metadata Date 2025-10-03T01:51:07Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d845002
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation J.S. Marshall Radar Observatory, McGill University. (1980). GATE Radar Reflectivity Data from the Canadian Ship Quadra. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/E45Y-6T07. Accessed 04 October 2025.

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