FSL Rawinsonde data format fficial 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 D LON D 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 D: direction latitude ('N' or 'S') or longitude ('E' or 'W') -note this only appears in the online archive containing international observations. ELEV: elevation from station history in meters RTIME: is the release time of radiosonde balloon 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)