TITLE: Soundings Rawinsonde West Texas Mesonet (Lubbock) [Texas Tech] CONTACTS: Tim Doggett Texas Tech University West Texas MesoNet P.O. Box 41165 Lubbock, TX 79409-1165 email: Tim.Doggett@ttu.edu 1.0 DATA SET OVERVIEW This data set contains the mandatory and significant level sounding data from the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet soundings released near Lubbock, Texas. Soundings were released during interesting weather events. During IHOP soundings were released on the following days: 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 29 May and 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15 June. The data are in SHARP/RAOB format. 2.0 INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION 2.1 Instrumentation Vaisala DigiCORA III sounding system. 2.2 Station Locations Soundings were released at Reese Center (12 miles west of Lubbock, TX.) 3.0 DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING UCAR/JOSS conducted no processing or quality control on these data. 4.0 DATA FORMAT AND FILE NAMING 4.1 Data Format These data are in SHARP/RAOB format. There are three sections of data the TTAA, TTBB, and PPBB. 4.1.1 TTAA section - Mandatory Level data Example of TTAA section of sounding: 72267 TTAA 79214 72267 99897 30275 04003 00028 ///// ///// 92739 ///// ///// 85492 26672 10505 70159 10859 04003 50585 11362 34028 40752 22574 34521 30956 ///// 88999 77999 51515 10164 00051 10194 08005 09002= Data is orgainized in groups of 5 characters, and 3 groups per level Decoding the TTAA section data identification section: symbolically, IIIII TTAA DDHHF IIIII TTAA - signals the start of the mandatory level data DD - day of month (GMT) plus 50 79 decodes to the 29th day of month, 79 - 50 = 29 HH - hour GMT 21 decodes to 21 GMT F - wind level flag or level of last wind group 4 decodes to 400 mb and above IIIII - block and station number 72267 mandatory level data: symbolically, CCLLL TTTDD WWWSS first group: CCLLL CC is a code for the level and signals the start of data at that level LLL is the level, either pressure (at the surface) or height (otherwise) CC level LLL decoding 99 surface pressure in whole millibars, without a thousands digit. 897 decodes to 897 mb 00 1000 mb height in whole meters 92 925 mb height in whole meters 85 850 mb height in whole meters, without a thousands digit of 1. 492 decodes to 1492 m 70 700 mb height in whole meters, without a thousands digit of 2 or 3. 159 decodes to 3159 m. the 3 produces a result closer to average conditions 50 500 mb height in whole dekameters (10 meters) 585 decodes to 5850 m 40 400 mb height in whole dekameters 752 decodes to 7520 m 30 300 mb height in whole dekameters 956 decodes to 9560 m 25 250 mb height in whole dekameters, without a leading 1 this sample does not reach this level 20 200 mb height in whole dekameters, without a leading 1 this sample does not reach this level 15 150 mb height in whole dekameters, without a leading 1 this sample does not reach this level 10 100 mb height in whole dekameters, without a leading 1 this sample does not reach this level 88 tropopause pressure in whole millibars missing in this case 77 max wind pressure in whole millibars missing in this case second group: symbolically, TTTDD TTT is the temperature in tenths of a degree Celcius. An odd tenths digit indicates a negative value; an even tenths digit indicates a positive value. 041 decodes to - 4.1 C. 046 decodes to + 4.6 C. DD is the dewpoint depression in degrees Celcius. A DD of 50 or less is in tenths of a degree Celcius. 48 decodes to 4.8 C. A DD above 55 is in whole degrees Celcius, and 50 must be subtracted. 59 decodes to 9 C. To find the dewpoint temperature, subtract the DD from the temperature. third group: symbolically, WWWSS WWW is wind direction to the nearest 5 degrees. SS is wind speed in whole knots; tens and units digits only. If speed is over 100, 1 is added to the wind direction. at the max wind level, the second and third groups are reversed 51515 signals the end of the TTAA 4.1.2 TTBB section - Significant Level data Example of TTBB section of sounding: 72267 TTBB 79216 72267 00897 30275 11869 29073 22619 00813 33598 00907 44549 05758 55519 10150 66516 09960 77442 18563 88408 21375 99378 26177 11312 36972= Decoding the TTBB section data identification section: symbolically, IIIII TTBB DDHHF IIIII same as TTAA significant level data: symbolically, CCLLL TTTDD 2 groups per level first group: CCLLL CC is a code for the level and signals the start of data at that level values are 00, 11, 22, ... LLL is the pressure in whole millibars second group: TTTDD same as TTAA 31313 signals end of TTBB 4.1.3 PPBB section - Standard Wind Level data Example of PPBB section of sounding: PPBB 79216 72267 90045 04003 06004 07505 90678 12503 11002 05501 909// 01501 91246 02003 35005 32016 92024 34028 32526 35024 9258/ 34521 33022 9301/ 34031 34533= Decoding the PPBB section data identification section: symbolically, PPBB DDHHF IIIII same as TTAA standard level wind data: symbolically, 9TABC WWWSS WWWSS WWWSS 4 groups per section; if A B or C are a "/", then that group is omitted first group: symbolically, 9TABC 9 signals the start of a 4 group section T is the base height, in 10,000's of feet MSL, of the following 3 observations A is the height relative to the base, in 1000's ft, of the first observation B is the height relative to the base, in 1000's ft, of the second observation C is the height relative to the base, in 1000's ft, of the third observation Example, 90012: the base height is 0 * 10,000 = 0 ft MSL the height of the first level is 0 + ( 0 * 1000 ) = 0 ft, or the surface the height of the second level is 0 + ( 1 * 1000 ) = 1000 ft MSL the height of the third level is 0 + ( 2 * 1000 ) = 2000 ft MSL second, third, and fourth groups: symbolically, WWWSS same as TTAA 4.2 File Naming conventions MY220219.lbb where: MY is the month (MY = May and JU = June) 22 is the day of the month 02 is the year (2002) 19 is the hour of observation (19 UTC) 5.0 DATA REMARKS None. 6.0 REFERNCES West Texas Mesonet Home Page: http://www.mesonet.ttu.edu/