National Weather Service (NWS) High Resolution Rawinsonde Data 1.0 General Description This is one of the upper air data sets developed for the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry Project (DC3) 2012 project. This data set includes 5520 high vertical resolution soundings from 53 1-second National Weather Service (NWS) rawinsonde stations located throughout the United States for the period covering 10 May 2012 through 30 June 2012. Soundings were typically released twice daily during this period. These data were converted into the EOL Sounding Composite (ESC) format (columnar ascii). 1.1 Data Set Contact Steve Williams NCAR/EOL sfw@ucar.edu 2.0 Detailed Data Description 2.0.1 National Weather Service High-Resolution Sounding Algorithms 2.1 Detailed Format Description All upper air soundings were converted to the National Center for Atmospheric Research/Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL) Sounding Composite Format (ESC). ESC is a version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) CLASS format and is an ASCII format consisting of 15 header records for each sounding followed by the data records with associated QC information. Header Records The header records (15 total records) contain data type, project ID, site ID, site location, release time, sonde type, meteorological and wind data processors, and the operator's name and comments. The first five header lines contain information identifying the sounding, and have a rigidly defined form. The following 7 header lines are used for auxiliary information and comments about the sounding, and may vary from dataset to dataset. The last 3 header records contain header information for the data columns. Line 13 holds the field names, line 14 the field units, and line 15 contains dashes ('-' characters) delineating the extent of the field. The five standard header lines are as follows: Line Label (padded to 35 char) Contents 1 Data Type: Description of type and resolution of data. 2 Project ID: ID of weather project. 3 Release Site Type/Site ID: Description of release site. 4 Release Location (lon,lat,alt): Position of release site, in format described below. 5 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): Time of release, in format: yyyy, mm, dd, hh:mm:ss The release location is given as: lon (deg min), lat (deg min), lon (dec. deg), lat (dec. deg), alt (m) Longitude in deg min is in the format: ddd mm.mm'W where ddd is the number of degrees from True North (with leading zeros if necessary), mm.mm is the decimal number of minutes, and W represents W or E for west or east longitude, respectively. Latitude has the same format as longitude, except there are only two digits for degrees and N or S for north/south latitude. The decimal equivalent of longitude and latitude and station elevation follow. The seven non-standard header lines may contain any label and contents. The labels are padded to 35 characters to match the standard header lines. Records for the MicroArt data at Guam include the following three non-standard header lines. Line Label (padded to 35 char) Contents 6 Ascension No: 1531 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 87047718.CSN 8 Radiosonde Manufacturer: VIZ B2 Records for the RRS data at Koror and Yap include the following non-standard header lines: Line Label (padded to 35 char) Contents 6 Ascension Number: 422 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85221265 8 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Other / GP26 9 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 1012011 / 0.700 10 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor 11 Surface Observations: P: 1008.1, T: 999.0, RH: 94.0, WS: 3.6, WD: 193.0 Data Records The data records each contain time from release, pressure, temperature, dew point, relative humidity, U and V wind components, wind speed and direction, ascent rate, balloon position data, altitude, and quality control flags (see the QC code description). Each data line contains 21 fields, separated by spaces, with a total width of 130 characters. The data are right-justified within the fields. All fields have one decimal place of precision, with the exception of latitude and longitude, which have three decimal places of precision. The contents and sizes of the 21 fields that appear in each data record are as follows: Field Format No. Width Parameter Units Missing Value ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 6 F6.1 Time Seconds 9999.0 2 6 F6.1 Pressure Millibars 9999.0 3 5 F5.1 Dry-bulb Temperature Degrees C 999.0 4 5 F5.1 Dew Point Temperature Degrees C 999.0 5 5 F5.1 Relative Humidity Percent 999.0 6 6 F6.1 U Wind Component Meters / Second 9999.0 7 6 F6.1 V Wind Component Meters / Second 9999.0 8 5 F5.1 Wind Speed Meters / Second 999.0 9 5 F5.1 Wind Direction Degrees 999.0 10 5 F5.1 Ascension Rate Meters / Second 999.0 11 8 F8.3 Longitude Degrees 9999.0 12 7 F7.3 Latitude Degrees 999.0 13 5 F5.1 Elevation Angle Degrees 999.0 14 5 F5.1 Azimuth Angle Degrees 999.0 15 7 F7.1 Altitude Meters 99999.0 16 4 F4.1 QC for Pressure Code (see below) 99.0 17 4 F4.1 QC for Temperature Code (see below) 99.0 18 4 F4.1 QC for Humidity Code (see below) 99.0 19 4 F4.1 QC for U Component Code (see below) 99.0 20 4 F4.1 QC for V Component Code (see below) 99.0 21 4 F4.1 QC for Ascension Rate Code (see below) 99.0 Fields 16 through 21 contain the Quality Control information derived at the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL). Any QC information from the original sounding is replaced by the following EOL codes: 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") Sample Data The following is a sample record of DC3 Sounding Rawinsonde NWS upper air data in EOL ESC format. The data portion is much longer than 80 characters and, therefore, may wrap around to a second line. See section 2.1 for an exact format specification Data Type: National Weather Service Sounding/Ascending Project ID: DC3 Release Site Type/Site ID: KDNR Denver, CO / 72469 Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 104 52.17'W, 39 46.05'N, -104.870, 39.768, 1611.0 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2012, 05, 25, 23:02:00 Ascension Number: 292 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85263871 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Totex / GP26 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 260112 / 0.600 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor Surface Observations: P: 828.9, T: 12.0, RH: 30.0, WS: 4.6, WD: 169.0 Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2012, 05, 26, 00:00:00 Time Press Temp Dewpt RH Ucmp Vcmp spd dir Wcmp Lon Lat Ele Azi Alt Qp Qt Qrh Qu Qv QdZ sec mb C C % m/s m/s m/s deg m/s deg deg deg deg m code code code code code code ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -------- ------- ----- ----- ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 0.0 828.9 24.3 5.6 30.0 0.1 5.7 5.7 181.0 999.0 -104.869 39.767 999.0 999.0 1611.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 1.0 828.5 24.1 5.5 30.0 0.0 5.8 5.8 180.0 5.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1616.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 2.0 828.1 24.0 5.4 30.1 -0.1 5.9 5.9 179.0 4.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1620.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 3.0 827.7 23.8 5.2 30.1 -0.2 6.1 6.1 178.1 4.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1624.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 4.0 827.2 23.7 5.2 30.1 -0.3 6.2 6.2 177.2 5.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1629.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 5.0 826.7 23.5 5.0 30.1 -0.4 6.3 6.3 176.4 5.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1634.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 6.0 826.2 23.4 4.9 30.2 -0.5 6.5 6.5 175.6 6.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1640.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 7.0 825.7 23.2 4.8 30.2 -0.6 6.6 6.6 174.8 5.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1645.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 8.0 825.2 23.1 4.7 30.2 -0.7 6.7 6.7 174.0 5.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1650.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 9.0 824.7 22.9 4.6 30.3 -0.8 6.9 6.9 173.4 6.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1656.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 10.0 824.2 22.8 4.5 30.3 -0.9 7.0 7.1 172.7 6.0 -104.869 39.768 999.0 999.0 1662.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 : : : 2.2 Data Remarks None 2.3 Station List All sites are in the United States. ID SITE, STATE Latitude Longitude ELEV (m) SONDE TYPE QC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ KABQ Albuquerque, NM /72365 35.03809 -106.62280 1619.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KABR Aberdeen, SD /72659 45.45450 -98.41416 398.0 Sippican Mark IIA KAMA Amarillo, TX /72363 35.23253 -101.70874 1095.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KAPX Gaylord, MI /72634 44.90826 -84.71936 448.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBIS Bismarck, ND /72764 46.77166 -100.76158 506.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBMX Birmingham, AL /72230 33.18010 -86.78269 174.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KBOI Boise, ID /72681 43.56775 -116.21092 873.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBRO Brownsville, TX /72250 25.91620 -97.41993 7.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBUF Buffalo, NY /72528 42.94003 -78.72474 218.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCHS Charleston, SC /72208 32.89473 -80.02776 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCRP Corpus Christi, TX /72251 27.77933 -97.50495 15.0 Sippican Mark IIA KDDC Dodge City, KS /72451 37.76164 -99.96936 790.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KDNR Denver, CO /72469 39.76749 -104.86945 1611.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KDRT Del Rio, TX /72261 29.37448 -100.91828 314.0 Sippican Mark IIA KDTX Detroit/White Lake, MI /72632 42.69915 -83.47160 330.0 Sippican Mark IIA KDVN Quad Cities, IA /74455 41.61238 -90.58209 230.0 Sippican Mark IIA KEPZ Santa Teresa/El Paso, NM /72364 31.87268 -106.69709 1254.0 Sippican Mark IIA KFFC Peachtree City, GA /72215 33.35611 -84.56734 245.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KFGZ Flagstaff, AZ /72376 35.23057 -111.82019 2179.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KFWD Fort Worth, TX /72249 32.83508 -97.29794 195.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KGGW Glasgow, MT /72768 48.20600 -106.62659 693.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGJT Grand Junction, CO /72476 39.11974 -108.52431 1474.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KGRB Green Bay, WI /72645 44.49755 -88.11171 209.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGSO Greensboro, NC /72317 36.09813 -79.94300 276.0 Sippican Mark IIA KILX Lincoln, IL /74560 40.15120 -89.33763 179.0 Sippican Mark IIA KINL Intl Falls, MN /72747 48.56467 -93.39739 357.0 Sippican Mark IIA KJAN Jackson, MS /72235 32.31999 -90.08031 91.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KJAX Jacksonville, FL /72206 30.48332 -81.70111 10.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KKEY Key West, FL /72201 24.55311 -81.78872 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLBF North Platte, NE /72562 41.13395 -100.69991 849.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KLCH Lake Charles, LA /72240 30.12551 -93.21709 5.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLIX Slidell, LA /72233 30.33763 -89.82507 10.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KLKN Elko, NV /72582 40.86018 -115.74146 1593.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KLZK Little Rock, AR /72340 34.83640 -92.25976 173.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KMAF Midland, TX /72265 31.94267 -102.18986 874.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMFL Miami, FL /72202 25.75547 -80.38355 4.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMPX Chanhassen/Minneapolis, MN /72649 44.84900 -93.56431 290.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOAX Omaha/Valley, NE /72558 41.31950 -96.36633 351.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOHX Old Hickory/Nashville, TN /72327 36.24694 -86.56178 180.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KOUN Norman, OK /72357 35.18095 -97.43787 345.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KPBZ Pittsburgh, PA /72520 40.53156 -80.21748 360.0 Sippican Mark IIA KRIW Riverton, WY /72672 43.06485 -108.47667 1699.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KRNK Blacksburg, VA /72318 37.20589 -80.41436 639.0 Sippican Mark IIA KSGF Springfield, MO /72440 37.23583 -93.40216 391.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KSHV Shreveport, LA /72248 32.45176 -93.84169 85.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KSLC Salt Lake City, UT /72572 40.77244 -111.95470 1289.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KTAE Tallahassee, FL /72214 30.44630 -84.29963 53.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KTBW Tampa Bay, FL /72210 27.70529 -82.40127 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA * KTFX Great Falls, MT /72776 47.46056 -111.38533 1134.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTOP Topeka, KS /72456 39.07297 -95.62983 268.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTWC Tucson, AZ /72274 32.22794 -110.95601 741.0 Sippican Mark IIA KUNR Rapid City, SD /72662 44.07301 -103.21027 1029.0 Sippican Mark IIA KVEF Las Vegas, NV / 72388 36.04714 -115.18464 697.0 Sippican Mark IIA The stations with the * in the QC column are in or within 100km of the three DC3 subregions (Colorado, Oklahoma, and Alabama) and underwent visual quality control in addition to the automated quality control that all soundings included in this data set underwent. We have utilized the processed PTU and GPS data from the RRS sounding systems to generate these files. The raw position, temperature and RH data are normalized by linear interpolation into 1 second processed data. The raw pressure data are normalized by least square interpolation into 1 second processed data. The pressure data are smoothed over 11 seconds of corrected pressure and the result is applied to the 6th corrected pressure within the 11 second spread. The temperature data are smoothed over 9 seconds of uncorrected temperature and the result is applied to the 5th uncorrected temperature within the 9 second spread. There must be at least 2 good raw temperature elements with the 9 second spread. The following corrections were applied by the RRS sounding system. Pressure correction - pressure correction is used to compensate for offsets of the radiosonde pressure sensor as compared to the station's pressure sensor. The pressure offset is determined during the radiosonde baseline operations. The correction is applied to the uncorrected pressure prior to pressure smoothing. This correction is defined as: Pc = Pu * (Pstn/Psonde) where Pc is the corrected pressure Pu is the uncorrected pressure Pstn is the station pressure Psonde is the radiosonde surface pressure Temperature correction - temperature correction is used to compensate for solar radiation. The correction is applied to the smoothed temperature. These corrections are proprietary to Sippican. 3.0 Quality Control Processing This dataset underwent an automated QC process. The dataset underwent internal consistency checks which included two types of checks, gross limit checks on all parameters and rate-of-change checks on temperature, pressure and ascension rate. Some further information on the QC processing conducted by EOL can be found in Loehrer et al. (1996) and Loehrer et al. (1998). 3.1 Gross Limit Checks These checks were conducted on each sounding and data were automatically flagged as appropriate. Only the data point under examination was flagged. EOL conducted the following gross limit checks on the DC3 NWS sounding dataset. In the table P = pressure, T = temperature, RH = relative humidity, U = U wind component, V = V wind component, B = bad, and Q = questionable. __________________________________________________________________ Parameter(s) Flag Parameter Gross Limit Check Flagged Applied __________________________________________________________________ Pressure < 0 mb or > 1050 mb P B Altitude < 0 m or > 40000 m P, T, RH Q Temperature < -90C or > 45C T Q Dew Point < -99.9C or > 33C RH Q > Temperature T, RH Q Relative Humidity < 0% or > 100% RH B Wind Speed < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s U, V Q > 150 m/s U, V B U Wind Component < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s U Q > 150 m/s U B V Wind Component < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s V Q > 150 m/s V B Wind Direction < 0 deg or > 360 deg U, V B Ascent Rate < -10 m/s or > 10 m/s P, T, RH Q _________________________________________________________________ 3.2 Vertical Consistency Checks These checks were conducted on each sounding and data were automatically flagged as appropriate. These checks were started at the lowest level of the sounding and compared neighboring 6-sec data points (except at pressures less than 100 mb where 30-sec average values were used. In the case of checks ensuring that the values increased/decreased as expected, only the data point under examination was flagged. However, for the other checks, all of the data points used in the examination were flagged. All items within the table are as previously defined. _____________________________________________________________________ Vertical Consistency Parameter(s) Flag Parameter Check Flagged Applied _____________________________________________________________________ Time decreasing/equal None None Altitude decreasing/equal P, T, RH Q Pressure increasing/equal P, T, RH Q > 1 mb/s or < -1 mb/s P, T, RH Q > 2 mb/s or < -2 mb/s P, T, RH B Temperature < -15 C/km P, T, RH Q < -30 C/km P, T, RH B > 50 C/km (not applied at p < 250mb) P, T, RH Q > 100 C/km (not applied at p < 250mb) P, T, RH B Ascent Rate change of > 3 m/s or < -3 m/s P Q change of > 5 m/s or < -5 m/s P B _____________________________________________________________________ 3.3 Visual Checks The sounding stations noted in section 2.3 were visually examined utilizing the EOL XQC tool which allows data quality flags to be adjusted. 3.4 Data Quality Comments None. 4.0 References NWS, 1991: 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. Williams, S. F., S. M. Loehrer, and D. R. Gallant, 1998: Computation of high-resolution National Weather Service rawinsonde winds. Preprints, Tenth Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, Phoenix, AZ, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 387-391.