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This dataset contains pressure values and additional metadata of convective vortex events recorded from 2012 to 2019 at 64 distinct locations at the Nevada National Security Site. Sensors at each site ran quasi-continuously for several years. These vortices are identified by characteristic dips in pressure time series, which are typically less than 1% of the background value and roughly symmetric in time.

This dataset was collected using Hyperion infrasound microbarometers deployed at the Nevada National Security Site during the Source Physics Phase 1 and Dry Alluvium Geology campaigns. These instruments are designed to capture low frequency sound, but they also record other pressure phenomena such as the passage of convective vortices. The instruments recorded continuously over months to years at distinct sites in this region.

Berg, E.M., L.J. Utrecho, S. Krishnamoorthy, E.A. Silber, A. Sparks, and D.C. Bowman (2024) An accurate and Automated Convective Vortex Detection Method for Long-Duration Infrasound Microbarometer Data, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 41, 341-354. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-23-0037.1






There are 2 folders in Data Derived. The Streams folder contains a series of csv and xml files for each event tabulating pressure in Pascals vs time and the Metadata folder contains csv and xml files for each event giving detailed information. For the contents of the metadata files see Dust Devil Data that contains the first 5 entries in the Metadata folder.


PDS recommendations for citing data sets can be found here.

Bowman, D. C., Krishnamoorthy, S., Berg, E. M., Urtecho, L. J., Silber, E. A., and Gauvain, S. J. (2024).  Seven years of convective vortex recordings in the Mojave desert, NASA Planetary Data System, http://doi.org/10.17189/58e0-1450