Continuous hydrometeorological record (2004–2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK Dataset Collection

This repository provides a continuous hydrometeorological record of the Met Office Observation-based research Boundary Layer Facility (BLF) at the semi-rural field site (14 Ha) of Cardington (52° 06′ N, 00° 25′ W, 29 m ± 1 m above mean sea level) in central-southern England between 2004 and 2024. The dataset contains recorded surface meteorology, radiation and subsoil from in-situ sensor measurements at four averaging periods, '01', '05', '10' or '30' minute intervals and measured by instruments mounted on 2 m, 10 m, 25 m and 50 m masts. In addition, specialist remote-sensing instruments including microwave radiometers, Halo Doppler lidars, ceilometers and disdrometer datasets are provided. A full list of NetCDF variables can be found in "Continuous meteorological surface and soil records (2004-2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK." Osborne et al. ESSD (2025). This paper also provides a technical introduction to the Cardington site, core instrumentation, specialist radiometers, the land surface model (LSM) forcing dataset derived from the principal dataset and a description of the file formats used in the archived products. This paper should be referenced in any research/publications pertaining to this dataset collection.