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USAFR C-130 'J' data files

The United States Air Force Reserve 53rd WRS records flight level parameters at one second intervals during reconnaissance missions into tropical disturbances. Each month an Air Force Quality Control officer will review all of the data collected during the previous month, and produce reduced ten second files for each flight. However, sometimes this data is retained at the one second interval.
These files are in ASCII. They consist of several header lines identifying the mission ID, start time and date for the data, software and file version numbers, and tail number of the aircraft in use. This is followed by a text line conatining headers identifying the parameter recorded in each column. Below is listing of those headers along with a full parameter name and the units that the data was recorded in.

USAF data headers
Current
Header Description Units
GMT Time Time of Day (UTC) Hours:Minutes:Seconds
ADR Air Density Ratio none
AOA Angle of Attack degrees
BCA Baro-Corrected Altitude millibars
BSP Baroset Pressure millibars
CAS Calibrated Air Speed knots
CSP Corrected Static Pressure millibars
DPR Dynamic Pressure millibars
GPSA GPS Altimeter meters
GS Ground Speed knots
IA Inertial Altimeter meters
ISP Inertial Static Pressure millibars
LAT Latitude degrees
LON Longitude degrees
PA Pressure Altitude meters
PITCH Pitch angle degrees
PR Pressure Ratio none
PT Total Pressure millibars
RA Radar Altitude meters
ROLL Roll angle degrees
SS Side Slip degrees
TA Corrected Static Air Temperature °C
TAS True Air Speed knots
THD True Heading degrees
TRK Track degrees
TT Total Temperature °C
VE Velocity East knots
VN Velocity North knots
VV Vertical Velocity knots
WDIR Wind Direction degrees
WSPD Wind Speed knots
TD Dew Point Temperature - Digital °C
RR Rain Rate (SFMR) mm/hr
SWS Surface Wind Speed (SFMR) knots
CC Course Correction degrees
DVAL Deviation Value meters
GA Geopotential Altitude meters
HSS Height of Standard Surface meters
SLP Sea Level Pressure millibars
WD Wind Direction (calculated) degrees
WS Wind Speed (calculated) knots
Valid Flags Parameter validity flags binary
Source Tags Data Source Tags hexidecimal
SATCOM Satellite Communications status binary
ARC210 Motorola ARC-210 Radio status binary
AD Analog/Digital Card status binary
DDPH Digital Dew Point Hygrometer status binary
1553 Main aircraft data bus digital
SFMR Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer output hexidecimal

The order of the parameters has varied over the years. Not all parameters listed above are available in previous versions. In addition some parameters are listed in previous versions which are no longer available and they are listed below.

USAF data headers
Previous
TDA Dew Point Temperature - Analog °C
TDD Dew Point Temperature - Digital °C


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