GCIP/LSANW 99 Mandatory/Significnat Level Sounding Data Set 1.0 General Information The GCIP/LSANW 99 Mandatory and Significant Level Sounding data set contains sounding data extracted from the NOAA/FSL radiosonde database for 17 NWS sites over the GCIP LSA-North West region. Other sites also occasionally other sites also released radiosonde and are included. These data have not been changed or quality controlled by UCAR/JOSS. 2.0 Data Contact Steve Williams (sfw@ucar.edu) 3.0 Data and Format Information 3.1 Station List US NWS Stations WMO # ID Site Name Latitude Longitude Elev. (m) Sonde -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72440 SGF Springfield, MO 37.23 -93.40 394 72451 DDC Dodge City, KS 37.77 -99.97 791 72456 TOP Topeka, KS 39.07 -95.62 268 72469 DEN Denver, CO 39.77 -104.88 1611 72476 GJT Grand Junction, CO 39.12 -108.53 1472 72558 OAX Omaha, NE 41.32 -96.37 350 72562 LBF North Platte, NE 41.13 -100.68 847 72572 SLC Salt Lake City, UT 40.77 -111.97 1288 72649 MPX Chanhassen, MN 44.83 -93.55 287 72659 ABR Aberdeen, SD 45.45 -98.42 397 72662 UNR Rapid City, SD 44.07 -103.21 1037 72672 RIW Riverton, WY 43.06 -108.47 1688 72747 INL International Falls, MN 48.57 -93.38 359 72764 BIS Bismarck, ND 46.77 -100.75 503 72768 GGW Glasgow, MT 48.20 -106.62 693 72776 TFX Twin Falls, MT 47.45 -111.38 1130 74455 DVN Davenport, IA 41.60 -90.57 229 3.2 Station List Non-US NWS Sites WMO # ID Site Name Latitude Longitude Elev. (m) Sonde -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71851 CYPG PORTAGE SOUTHPORT, CN 49.90 -98.27 269 71853 YLO SHILO, CN 49.82 -99.65 382 72468 FCS Fort Carson, CO 38.70 -104.77 1788 74641 KWWR VICI, OK 36.43 -99.53 667 NOTE: FCS only has four soundings during this period all in September 1999. KWWR only has 149 soundings during this period one in Jan 2000, several in Feb 2000, but most in Mar 2000. Up to 3 hourly releases in Mar. CYPG has winds only and only from about 0-2000m. 3.3 Sample Data and Format Description The format is the FSL Rawinsonde data format. Here is the description of this format as provided by NOAA/FSL. FSL Rawinsonde data format The official FSL data format is similar to the format used by the National Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) in Kansas City. The first 4 lines of the sounding are identification and information lines. All additional lines are data lines. An entry of 32767 (original format) or 99999 (new format) indicates that the information is either missing, not reported, or not applicable. ---COLUMN NUMBER--- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 LINTYP header lines 254 HOUR DAY MONTH YEAR (blank) (blank) 1 WBAN# WMO# LAT LON ELEV RTIME 2 HYDRO MXWD TROPL LINES TINDEX SOURCE 3 (blank) STAID (blank) (blank) SONDE WSUNITS data lines 9 PRESSURE HEIGHT TEMP DEWPT WIND DIR WIND SPD 4 5 6 7 8 LEGEND LINTYP: type of identification line 254 = indicates a new sounding in the output file 1 = station identification line 2 = sounding checks line 3 = station identifier and other indicators line 4 = mandatory level 5 = significant level 6 = wind level (PPBB) (GTS or merged data) 7 = tropopause level (GTS or merged data) 8 = maximum wind level (GTS or merged data) 9 = surface level HOUR: time of report in UTC LAT: latitude in degrees and hundredths LON: longitude in degrees and hundredths ELEV: elevation from station history in meters RTIME: is the actual release time of radiosonde from TTBB. Appears in GTS data only. HYDRO: the pressure of the level to where the sounding passes the hydrostatic check (see section 4.3).** MXWD: the pressure of the level having the maximum wind in the sounding. If within the body of the sounding there is no "8" level then MXWN is estimated (see section 3.2). TROPL: the pressure of the level containing the tropopause. If within the body of the sounding there is no "7" level, then TROPL is estimated (see section 3.3)** LINES: number of levels in the sounding, including the 4 identification lines. TINDEX: indicator for estimated tropopause. A "7" indicates that sufficient data was available to attempt the estimation; 11 indicates that data terminated and that tropopause is a "suspected" tropopause. SOURCE: 0 = National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) 1 = Atmospheric Environment Service (AES), Canada 2 = National Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) 3 = GTS or FSL GTS data only 4 = merge of NCDC and GTS data (sources 2,3 merged into sources 0,1) SONDE: type of radiosonde code from TTBB. Only reported with GTS data 10 = VIZ "A" type radiosonde 11 = VIZ "B" type radiosonde 12 = Space data corp.(SDC) radiosonde. WSUNITS:wind speed units (selected upon output) ms = tenths of meters per second kt = knots PRESSURE: in whole millibars (original format) in tenths of millibars (new format) HEIGHT: height in meters (m) TEMP: temperature in tenths of degrees Celsius DEWPT: dew point temperature in tenths of a degree Celsius WIND DIR: wind direction in degrees WIND SPD: wind speed in either knots or tenths of a meter per second (selected by user upon output) An example of fortran format statements necessary to read output rawinsonde data, according to LINTYP, is as follows: LINTYP 254 (3i7,6x,a4,i7) 1 (3i7,2f7.2,2i7) 2 (7i7) 3 (i7,10x,a4,14x,i7,5x,a2) 4,5,6,7,8,9 (7i7) **- section of noaa tech memo on the data base (in print) TECHNICAL INFORMATION: Schwartz, B.E., and M. Govett, 1992: "A hydrostatically consistent North American Radiosonde Data Base at the forecast Systems Laboratory, 1946-present." NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL FSL-4. Available from NOAA/ERL/FSL 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303. 4.0 Quality Control Procedures UCAR/JOSS conducted no quality checks on these data. 5.0 File Naming Convention The file names are structured as follows: soundings_yyyymm_gts.txt Where soundings is the data type yyyy is the four digit year mm is the two digit month gts is the name of the data set 6.0 References Schwartz, B.E., and M. Govett, 1992: "A hydrostatically consistent North American Radiosonde Data Base at the forecast Systems Laboratory, 1946-present." NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL FSL-4. Available from NOAA/ERL/FSL 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303.