High-resolution atmospheric data cubes from the WegenerNet 3D Open-Air Laboratory for Climate Change Research

Abstract. This paper describes the first release of Level 1b and Level 2 high-resolution atmospheric data cubes generated in the WegenerNet 3D Open-Air Laboratory for Climate Change Research Feldbach Region (WEGN3D Open-Air Lab). These datasets, based on the continuous WegenerNet 3D observations form a growing multi-year observational data collection at sub-kilometer scale and sub-hourly resolution. They are capable to support the study of weather extremes in a changing climate, water vapor–cloud–precipitation interactions, and interactions between the surface and the free atmosphere, among other uses. The data are not assimilated into reanalyses or numerical weather prediction models. Consequently, they can also serve as an independent dataset for evaluation and validation of such models, as well as of climate-oriented modeling, at high spatial and temporal resolution. The instrumentation behind the WEGN3D Open-Air Lab atmospheric data cubes consists of an X-band dual-polarization precipitation radar, a combined microwave/infrared tropospheric sounding radiometer, an infrared cloud structure radiometer, and a six-station water vapor sounding Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GN