Microfronts National Weather Service High-Resolution Upper-Air Dataset 
     
     
     1.0  General Description
     
          This is one of the upper air sounding datasets developed for the
     Microfronts experiment conducted in March 1995 near DeGraff, Kansas.
     The soundings were typically released at 00 and 12
     UTC, however,  several stations had additional launches on an as requested
     basis.  The final dataset consists of 6-sec vertical resolution files.
     
     2.0  Detailed Data Description
     
          For each sounding this dataset contains the data type, project ID,
     site ID, site location, release time and ascension number.  Additionally,
     for each sounding level, this dataset contains the time from release, pressure,
     temperature, dewpoint, relative humidity, U and V wind components, wind
     speed and direction, ascent rate, balloon position data, altitude, and quality
     control flags (see QC code description). 
     
     QC Code Description

     Code      Description
     
     99.0  Unchecked (QC information is "missing.")  ("UNCHECKED")
     1.0   Checked, datum seems physically reasonable.  ("GOOD")
     2.0   Checked, datum seems questionable on physical basis.  ("MAYBE")
     3.0   Checked, datum seems to be in error.  ("BAD")
     4.0   Checked, datum is interpolated.  ("ESTIMATED")
     9.0   Checked, datum was missing in original file.  ("MISSING")
     
     3.0  Quality Control Processing
     
          This dataset underwent a two-stage QC process.  First, the dataset
     underwent internal consistency checks.  This included two types of checks,
     "reasonable" limit checks on all parameters and rate-of-change checks on
     temperature, pressure and ascension rate.  Second, each sounding was
     visually examined to verify those paramters that are too variable for
     automatic checks (wind speed, wind direction and moisture).  This stage
     of the QC process also allows for a verification of the QC flags generated
     by the automatic checks.
     
     4.0  Reference
     
     Micro-ART Observation and Rework Programs Technical Document,
     National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
     Administration, Washington, D.C., March 1991.
     
     Williams, S.F., C.G. Wade, and C. Morel, 1993:  A comparison of
     high resolution radiosonde winds:  6-second Micro-ART winds versus
     10-second CLASS LORAN winds.  Preprints, Eighth Symposium on
     Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, Anaheim,
     California, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 60-65.