This is one of the upper air data sets developed for the Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment (RAINEX). It includes 201 dropsondes from the NOAA P-3 N42RF aircraft. The data are 0.5 second vertical resolution. It includes dropsondes that occurred during Hurricanes Dennis (2005 Jul 8-11), Ophelia (2005 Sept 7, 9, 11, 12, 16, and 17), Rita (2005 Sept 22 and 23), and Wilma (2005 Oct 22 and 23).
All upper air soundings were converted to 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.
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 the release site. |
| 4 | Release Location (lon,lat,alt): | Position of release site in the format described below. |
| 5 | UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): | Time of release, in the 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 this dataset include the following three non-standard header lines.
| Line | Label (padded to 35 char) | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Bias Corrections: | |
| 7 | Comments: | Operator comments |
| 8 | Hydrostatic Surface Pressure: | |
| 9 | Release Flight Level Data: | Measurements taken at flight level when the sonde was released. |
| 10 | Sonde Id: | 042115089 |
| 11 | Splash Pressure: | Pressure of the sounding when it hit the ocean. |
| 12 | Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): | Nominal time of release, in the format: yyyy, mm, dd, hh:mm:ss |
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 No. | Width | Format | 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 | Ascent 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 Wind Component | Code (see below) | 99.0 |
| 20 | 4 | F4.1 | QC for V Wind 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") |
The following is a sample record of NOAA P-3 N42RF RAINEX high resolution rawinsonde data in ESC format. The data portion is much longer than 80 characters and, therefore, wraps around to a second line. See section 2.1 for an exact format specification
Data Type: NOAA P3 Dropsonde/Descending Project ID: RAINEX Release Site Type/Site ID: NOAA_P3 N42RF/Ophelia Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 073 16.76'W, 39 21.38'N, -73.279, 39.356, 4.0 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2005, 09, 16, 19:36:35 Bias Corrrections: PR = .0 mb, TE = .0 C, RH = .0 %, PRB = .0 mb Comments: None Hydrostatic Surface Pressure: 1017.0 mb Release Flight Level Data: PR = 455.3 mb, TA = -7.2 C, RH = -999.0 %, WD = 181 deg, WS = 7.7 m/s Sonde Id: 011378068 Splash Pressure: 1014.0 mb Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2005, 09, 16, 19:36:35 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 ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -------- ------- ----- ----- ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 498.1 1014.0 24.6 999.0 999.0 -5.9 -0.5 6.0 85.0 999.0 -73.279 39.356 999.0 999.0 4.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 497.6 1013.4 24.6 23.4 93.3 -6.3 -0.7 6.3 84.0 -12.0 -73.279 39.356 999.0 999.0 10.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 497.1 1012.7 24.6 23.4 93.1 -6.5 -0.6 6.5 85.0 -10.0 -73.279 39.356 999.0 999.0 15.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 496.6 1012.1 24.6 23.4 92.8 -6.6 -0.5 6.6 86.0 -10.0 -73.279 39.356 999.0 999.0 20.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 496.1 1011.5 24.6 23.3 92.5 -6.8 -0.3 6.9 87.0 -12.0 -73.279 39.356 999.0 999.0 26.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 99.0
| ID | SITE | STATE | LONG | LAT | ELEV (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N42RF | NOAA P-3 N42RF | FL | -999.99999 | -999.99999 | -9999.9 |