National Weather Service (NWS) High Resolution Rawinsonde Data 1.0 General Description This is one of the upper air data sets developed for the Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport 2008 (START08). This data set includes a total of 11999 high vertical resolution soundings from the 70 National Weather Service rawinsonde stations in the contiguous United States. This includes 8725 1-second vertical resolution soundings from the 50 stations that utilized the Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) with GPS windfinding and 3274 6-second vertical resolution soundings from the 20 stations that used the MicroArt sounding system and radiotheolodite windfinding. The data cover the period from 1200 UTC on 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2008. The soundings were typically released twice a day at 0000 and 1200 UTC. Three stations (Albuquerque, NM; Del Rio, TX; Santa Teresa/El Paso, TX) switched from MicroArt to RRS soundings during this time period. The data are in EOL Sounding Composite 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 The detailed description of NWS MicroArt sounding collection and instrumentation is located in NWS (1991). The detailed description of the NWS Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) sounding collection and instrumentation is located in http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/RRS.htm 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 Topeka, KS include the following three non-standard header lines. Line Label (padded to 35 char) Contents 6 Ascension No: 1299 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 152551614 8 Radiosonde Manufacturer: Vaisala Records for the RRS data at the remaining stations include the following non-standard header lines: 6 Ascension Number: 64 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85081439 8 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Kaysam / GP26 9 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 8 / 0.700 10 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor 11 Surface Observations: P: 958.1, T: -2.6, RH: 65.0, WS: 10.8, WD: 305.0 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 START08 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: START08 Release Site Type/Site ID: KSGF Springfield, MO / 72440 Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 093 24.13'W, 37 14.15'N, -93.402, 37.236, 391.0 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2008, 04, 23, 23:09:19 Ascension Number: 241 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85049639 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Kaysam / GP26 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 261007 / 0.700 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor Surface Observations: P: 968.1, T: 14.2, RH: 53.0, WS: 6.2, WD: 154.0 Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2008, 04, 24, 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 ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -------- ------- ----- ----- ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 0.0 968.3 25.6 15.6 54.0 -2.3 4.0 4.6 150.1 999.0 -93.402 37.236 999.0 999.0 391.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 1.0 968.1 25.5 15.5 53.9 -2.2 4.6 5.1 154.4 2.0 -93.402 37.236 999.0 999.0 393.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 2.0 967.6 25.4 15.4 53.8 -2.2 5.1 5.6 156.7 4.0 -93.403 37.237 999.0 999.0 397.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 3.0 967.1 25.4 15.3 53.6 -2.3 5.3 5.8 156.5 5.0 -93.403 37.237 999.0 999.0 402.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 4.0 966.6 25.4 15.3 53.5 -2.4 5.6 6.1 156.8 5.0 -93.403 37.237 999.0 999.0 407.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 5.0 966.0 25.3 15.2 53.4 -2.5 5.8 6.3 156.7 5.0 -93.403 37.237 999.0 999.0 412.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 2.2 Data Remarks The soundings from KBUF at 1200 UTC on 28 April 2008 and KIAD at 1200 UTC on 28 June 2008 had significant issues with the pressure and altitude data as the pressures rise unrealistically for several seconds after release. These soundings should be used with caution. For the MicroArt station data the use of the raw 6-sec resolution elevation and azimuth angle data to derive the winds sometimes led to large oscillations in wind speed, due to the presence of oscillations in the elevation angle data, particularly at low elevation angles. The general approach to correct this problem was to remove the out-lier radiosonde position data before computing the wind components (Williams et al. 1993). For both the azimuth and elevation angles from 360 sec to the end of the sounding, a ninth order polynomial was fit to the curve. The residuals were calculated and compared to the observed values. The outliers of the residuals were then removed. Then to help correct the more extensive problems at low elevation angles within 10 degrees of the limiting angles (LA) some additional smoothing was applied. If the elevation angle was between (LA + 7.5) and (LA + 10), the new elevation angle was computed with a 2 min linear fit. If the elevation angle was between (LA + 5) and (LA + 7.5), the new elevation angle was computed with a 3 min linear fit. If the elevation angle was less than (LA + 5), the new elevation angle was computed with a 4 min linear fit. If the number of observations with low elevation angles was greater than 20% of the total number of observations for the sounding no frequency smoothing occurred. Then, for the elevation angle only, a finite Fourier analysis was performed on the residuals. Periods from 90-190 sec were removed and those below 30 sec were flattened. Finally, a 2 min second order polynomial was then fit to the position to derive the u and v wind components, except for the beginning and end minute (or 1.5 minutes if over 50 mb) which used a 3 min fit. If there were less than 15% of the total number of points, not counting the beginning or end of the flight, on one side of the point for which the wind value was being computed, a linear fit was used. For further information on this methodology and its changes since Williams et al. (1993) please see Williams, et al. (1998). 2.3 Station List ID SITE STATE COUNTRY LONG LAT ELEV (m) SONDE TYPE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 MicroArt Stations -------------------- ABQ Albuquerque NM US -106.6 35.0 1615.0 VIZ B2 BRO Brownsville TX US -97.4 25.9 7.0 VIZ B2 CAR Caribou ME US -68.0 46.9 191.0 VIZ B2 CHH Chatham MA US -70.0 41.7 16.0 Vaisala DDC Dodge City KS US -100.0 37.8 788.0 VIZ B2 DNR Denver INT APT CO US -104.9 39.8 1611.0 Vaisala DRA Desert Rock NV US -116.0 36.6 1007.0 VIZ B2 DRT Del Rio TX US -100.9 29.4 314.0 VIZ B2 DTX White Lake MI US -83.5 42.7 329.0 Vaisala EPZ Santa Teresa NM US -106.7 31.9 1252.0 Vaisala GRB Green Bay WI US -88.1 44.5 214.0 VIZ B2 INL Int'l Falls MN US -93.4 48.5 361.0 Vaisala KEY Key West FL US -81.8 24.5 15.0 VIZ B2 MFR Medford OR US -122.9 42.4 397.0 VIZ B2 NKX San Diego CA US -117.1 32.8 134.0 VIZ B2 OAK Oakland CA US -122.2 37.7 2.0 VIZ B2 OKX Brookhaven NY US -72.9 40.9 20.0 Vaisala PBZ Pittsburgh PA US -80.2 40.5 360.0 VIZ B2 TFX Great Falls MT US -111.4 47.5 1132.0 VIZ B2 TOP Topeka KS US -95.6 39.1 270.0 Vaisala 50 RRS stations --------------- KABQ Albuquerque NM US -106.6 35.0 1619.0 Sippican Mark IIA KABR Aberdeen SD US -98.4 45.5 398.0 Sippican Mark IIA KAMA Amarillo TX US -101.7 35.2 1095.0 Sippican Mark IIA KAPX Gaylord MI US -84.7 44.9 448.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBIS Bismarck ND US -100.8 46.8 506.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBMX Birmingham AL US -86.8 33.2 174.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBOI Boise ID US -116.2 43.6 873.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBUF Buffalo NY US -78.7 42.9 218.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCHS Charleston SC US -80.0 32.9 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCRP Corpus Christi TX US -97.5 27.8 15.0 Sippican Mark IIA KDRT Del Rio TX US -100.9 29.4 290.0 Sippican Mark IIA KDVN Quad Cities IA US -90.6 41.6 230.0 Sippican Mark IIA KEPZ Santa Teresa/El Paso NM US -106.7 31.9 1254.0 Sippican Mark IIA KFFC Peachtree City GA US -84.6 33.4 245.0 Sippican Mark IIA KFGZ Flagstaff AZ US -111.8 35.2 2179.0 Sippican Mark IIA KFWD Fort Worth TX US -97.3 32.8 195.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGGW Glasgow MT US -106.6 48.2 693.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGJT Grand Junction CO US -108.5 39.1 1474.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGSO Greensboro NC US -79.9 36.1 276.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGYX Gray (Portland) ME US -70.3 43.9 124.0 Sippican Mark IIA KIAD Sterling VA US -77.5 39.0 86.0 Sippican Mark IIA KILN Wilmington OH US -83.8 39.4 323.0 Sippican Mark IIA KILX Lincoln IL US -89.3 40.2 179.0 Sippican Mark IIA KJAN Jackson MS US -90.1 32.3 91.0 Sippican Mark IIA KJAX Jacksonville FL US -81.7 30.5 10.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLBF North Platte NE US -100.7 41.1 849.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLCH Lake Charles LA US -93.2 30.1 5.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLIX Slidell LA US -89.8 30.3 10.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLKN Elko NV US -115.7 40.9 1593.0 Sippican Mark IIA KLZK Little Rock AR US -92.3 34.8 173.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMAF Midland TX US -102.2 31.9 874.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMFL Miami FL US -80.4 25.8 4.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMPX Minneapolis MN US -93.6 44.8 290.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMHX Newport NC US -76.9 34.8 11.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOAX Omaha/Valley NE US -96.4 41.3 351.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOHX Old Hickory/Nashville TN US -86.6 36.3 180.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOTX Spokane WA US -117.6 47.7 729.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOUN Norman OK US -97.4 35.2 345.0 Sippican Mark IIA KRAP Rapid City SD US -103.2 44.1 1029.0 Sippican Mark IIA KREV Reno NV US -119.8 39.6 1518.0 Sippican Mark IIA KRIW Riverton WY US -108.5 43.1 1699.0 Sippican Mark IIA KRNK Blacksburg VA US -80.4 37.2 639.0 Sippican Mark IIA KSGF Springfield MO US -93.4 37.2 391.0 Sippican Mark IIA KSHV Shreveport LA US -93.8 32.5 85.0 Sippican Mark IIA KSLC Salt Lake City UT US -112.0 40.8 1289.0 Sippican Mark IIA KSLE Salem OR US -123.0 44.9 62.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTAE Tallahassee FL US -84.3 30.4 53.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTBW Tampa Bay FL US -82.4 27.7 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTWC Tucson AZ US -111.0 32.2 751.0 Sippican Mark IIA KUIL Quillayute WA US -124.6 47.9 57.0 Sippican Mark IIA The RRS soundings utilized the Global Positioning System (GPS) to derive the winds. NCAR/EOL did no additional processing to the wind data provided in these soundings. NCAR/EOL utilized the processed version of the RRS data. This means the data were smoothed and had corrections applied (e.g. solar radiation correction) by the NWS. NCAR/EOL conducted no additional processing on these data. 3.0 RRS Code Tables The Radisonde Replacement System (RRS) soundings use a set of codes to define sections of the metadata for the sounding. The codes are included in the sounding headers and can be translated with the following tables. 3.1 Code Table 9-1 Radiosonde Type ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0-50 Defined or Reserved 51 VIZ-B2 (USA) 52 Vaisala RS80-57H 53-86 Defined or Reserved 87 Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure 88-254 Defined or Reserved 255 Mising value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.2 Code Table 9-9 Balloon Manufacturer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 Kaysam 1 Totex 2 KKS 3-61 Reserved 62 Other 63 Missing value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.3 Code Table 9-10a Type of Balloon ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 GP26 1 GP28 2 GP30 3 HM26 4 HM28 5 HM30 6 SV16 7-29 Reserved 30 Other 31 Missing value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.