BAMEX Soundings Rawinsonde ARM (2-sec vertical levels)[JOSS] 1.0 General Description This is one of the upper air data sets developed for the Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convection Vortex Experiment (BAMEX). This dataset contains one Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement - Clouds And Radiation Testbed (ARM-CART) sounding station: Lamont, OK (Central Facility). 2.0 Detailed Data Description All upper air soundings were converted to University Corporation for Atmospheric Science/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) Cross Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System (CLASS) Format (JCF). JCF 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 Quality Control (QC) information. At the central facility soundings were typically released three or four times a day at 00, 06, 12, and 18 UTC. However, during Intensive Observing Periods (IOPs) the sounding frequency increased to up to 8 per day (3-hourly; including weekends). 2.1 Detailed Format Description All upper air soundings were converted to University Corporation for Atmospheric Science/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) Cross Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System (CLASS) Format (JCF). JCF 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 Quality Control (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 label is padded to 35 characters to match the standard header lines. Data Records The data records each contain time from release, pressure, temperature, dewpoint, 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 Range Kilometers 999.0 14 5 F5.1 Azimuth 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 UCAR Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS). Any QC information from the original sounding is replaced by the following JOSS 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 BAMEX 2003 ARM-CART High-Resolution Upper-Air data in JOSS CLASS format. The data portion is much longer than 80 characters and, therefore, wraps around to a second line. See section 2.1 for an exact format specification Data Type: Sounding Project ID: BAMEX 2003 ARM-CART Class Format Sounding Release Site Type/Site ID: C1 Central Facility Lamont, OK Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 097 29.40'W, 36 36.60'N, -97.49, 36.61, 315.0 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2003, 07, 03, 23:30:00 Radiosonde Serial Number: Y1630303 Ascension No: 100704031 Input File: sgpsondewnpnC1.b1.20030703.233000.cdf / / / Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2003, 07, 04, 00:00:00 Time Press Temp Dewpt RH Uwind Vwind Wspd Dir dZ Lon Lat Elev Azim Alt Qp Qt Qh 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 ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -------- ------- ----- ----- ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 0.0 972.0 36.8 14.8 27.0 -0.2 7.0 7.0 178.0 999.0 -97.490 36.610 999.0 999.0 315.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 99.0 99.0 9.0 2.0 971.7 36.1 14.7 28.0 -0.3 8.5 8.5 178.0 1.5 -97.490 36.610 999.0 999.0 318.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 4.0 970.4 36.1 14.5 27.0 -0.3 8.6 8.6 178.0 6.5 -97.490 36.610 999.0 999.0 331.0 3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 6.0 969.1 36.0 14.2 27.0 -0.3 8.8 8.8 178.0 5.5 -97.490 36.610 999.0 999.0 342.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 8.0 968.0 35.8 14.1 27.0 -0.5 8.9 8.9 177.0 5.0 -97.490 36.611 999.0 999.0 352.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 2.2 Data Remarks ARM-CART files from 20 May 2003 through 06 July 2003 were delivered as netcdf files which JOSS converted to JCF. These files have two-second vertical resolution thermodynamic and wind data. 3.0 Quality Control Processing ARM-CART soundings were Quality Controlled (Lesht 1995) and provided to UCAR/JOSS by the ARM-CART Project. This dataset underwent a JOSS QC process which consisted of internal consistency checks. This included gross limit checks on all parameters and rate-of-change checks on temperature, pressure and ascension rate. JOSS did not perform visual quality control procedures on this data. Some further information on the QC processing conducted by JOSS can be found in Loehrer et al. (1996) and Loehrer et al. (1998). 3.1 Gross Limit Checks These checks were conducted on each sounding and data were automatically flagged as appropriate. Only the data point under examination was flagged. JOSS conducted the following gross limit checks on the BAMEX ARM sounding dataset. In the table,P = pressure, T = temperature, RH = relative humidity, U = U wind component, V = V wind component, B = bad, and Q = questionable. __________________________________________________________________ Parameter(s) Flag Parameter Gross Limit Check Flagged Applied __________________________________________________________________ Pressure < 0 mb or > 1030 mb P B Altitude < 0 m or > 35000 m P, T, RH Q Temperature < -80C or > 45C T Q Dew Point < -99.9C or > 30C RH Q > Temperature T, RH Q Relative Humidity < 0% or > 100% RH B Wind Speed < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s U, V Q > 150 m/s U, V B U Wind Component < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s U Q > 150 m/s U B V Wind Component < 0 m/s or > 100 m/s V Q > 150 m/s V B Wind Direction < 0 deg or > 360 deg U, V B Ascent Rate < -10 m/s or > 10 m/s P, T, RH Q _________________________________________________________________ 3.2 Vertical Consistency Checks These checks were conducted on each sounding and data were automatically flagged as appropriate. These checks were started at the lowest level of the sounding and compared neighboring 2-sec data points. In the case of checks ensuring that the values increased/decreased as expected, only the data point under examination was flagged. However, for the other checks, all of the data points used in the examination were flagged. All items within the table are as previously defined. _____________________________________________________________________ Vertical Consistency Parameter(s) Flag Parameter Check Flagged Applied _____________________________________________________________________ Time decreasing/equal None None Altitude decreasing/equal P, T, RH Q Pressure increasing/equal P, T, RH Q > 1 mb/s or < -1 mb/s P, T, RH Q > 2 mb/s or < -2 mb/s P, T, RH B Temperature < -15 C/km P, T, RH Q < -30 C/km P, T, RH B > 5 C/km (not applied at p , 150mb) P, T, RH Q < 30 C/km (not applied at p , 150mb) P, T, RH B Ascent Rate change of > 3 m/s or < -3 m/s P Q change of > 5 m/s or < -5 m/s P B _____________________________________________________________________ 4.0 References Lesht, B. M., 1995: An evaluation of ARM radiosonde operational performance. Preprints, Ninth Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, Charlotte, NC, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 6-10. Loehrer, S. M., T. A. Edmands, and J. A. Moore, 1996: TOGA COARE upper-air sounding data archive: development and quality control procedures. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 2651-2671. Loehrer, S. M., S. F. Williams, and J. A. Moore, 1998: Results from UCAR/JOSS quality control of atmospheric soundings from field projects. Preprints, Tenth Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, Phoenix, AZ, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 1-6.