Soundings Rawinsonde NWS (GTS mandatory/significant levels) [JOSS] 1.0 General Information This data set contains mandatory and significant level sounding data extracted from the NOAA/FSL radiosonde database for 13 NWS and 5 other sites over the IHOP 2002 region. 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72365 ABQ Albuquerque, NM 35.0 -106.6 1615 VIZ B2 72363 AMA Amarillo, TX 35.2 -101.7 1094 Vaisala 72451 DDC Dodge City, KS 37.8 -100.0 788 VIZ B2 72469 DNR Denver, CO 39.8 -104.9 1611 Vaisala 72249 FWD Fort Worth, TX 32.8 -97.3 198 Vaisala 72562 LBF North Platte, NE 41.1 -100.7 849 Vaisala 72340 LZK North Little Rock, AR 34.8 -92.3 172 Vaisala 72265 MAF Midland, TX 32.0 -102.2 873 Vaisala 72558 OAX Omaha, NE 41.3 -96.4 350 Vaisala 72357 OUN Norman, OK 35.2 -97.4 357 Vaisala 72440 SGF Springfield, MO 37.2 -93.4 391 Vaisala 72248 SHV Shreveport, LA 32.5 -93.8 83 Vaisala 72456 TOP Topeka, KS 39.1 -95.6 270 Vaisala 3.2 Station List Non-US NWS Sites WMO # ID Site Name Latitude Longitude Elev. (m) Sonde -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 74547 ARM Hillsboro, KS 38.305 -97.301 447 Vaisala 74646 ARM Central Facility 36.609 -97.487 313 Vaisala 74650 ARM Morris, OK 35.688 -95.856 217 Vaisala 74651 ARM Purcell, OK 34.985 -97.522 344 Vaisala 74641 WWR ARM Vici, OK 36.071 -99.204 622 Vaisala Please note that the locations provided within the data for these non-NWS sites are sometimes incorrect. 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 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 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,f7.2,a1,f6.2,a1,i6,i7) 2 (7i7) 3 (i7,10x,a4,14x,i7,5x,a2) 4,5,6,7,8,9 (7i7) Note the format descriptor for LINTYP=1 has changed to conform with the CDROM archive. **- 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: ABQ.txt Where ABQ is the station identifier (either 3 letter id or WMO station number) 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.