CuPIDO Sounding Composite Highest Resolution Upper-Air Data Set

1.0 General Description

This dataset contains the highest possible resolution (i.e. the 'native' resolution) upper-air sounding data in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) Sounding Composite Format from stations in the following networks:

Data for the Cumulus Photogrammetric, In-Situ and Doppler Observations (CuPIDO) 2006 domain (23°N to 36°N latitude and 120°W to 100°W) are contained within this dataset. The dataset covers the time period 1 July 2006 through 31 August 2006. This CuPIDO 2006 Sounding Composite Highest Resolution Upper-Air Dataset contains 1598 soundings from 4 platforms.

Section 2.1 contains a detailed description of the format of the composite dataset.

2.0 Detailed Data Description

2.1 Detailed Format Description

All upper air soundings were converted to National Center for Atmospheric Research/Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL) Sounding Composite (ESC) format. ESC 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 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:

LineLabel (padded to 35 char)Contents
1Data Type:Description of type and resolution of data.
2Project ID:Id of weather project.
3Release Site Type/Site ID:Description of the release site.
4Release Location (lon,lat,alt):Position of release site in the format described below.
5UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):Time of release, in the 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 nonstandard header lines may contain any label and contents. The labels are padded to 35 characters to match the standard header lines. Records for this dataset include the following three nonstandard header lines.

LineLabel (padded to 35 char)Contents
12Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):Nominal time of release, in the format: yyyy, mm, dd, hh:mm:ss

Data Records

The data records each contain time from release, pressure, temperature, dew point, 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 No.WidthFormatParameterUnitsMissing Value
16F6.1TimeSeconds9999.0
26F6.1PressureMillibars9999.0
35F5.1Dry-bulb TemperatureDegrees C999.0
45F5.1Dew Point TemperatureDegrees C999.0
55F5.1Relative HumidityPercent999.0
66F6.1U Wind ComponentMeters / Second9999.0
76F6.1V Wind ComponentMeters / Second9999.0
85F5.1Wind SpeedMeters / Second999.0
95F5.1Wind DirectionDegrees999.0
105F5.1Ascent RateMeters / Second999.0
118F8.3LongitudeDegrees9999.0
127F7.3LatitudeDegrees999.0
135F5.1Elevation AngleDegrees999.0
145F5.1Azimuth AngleDegrees999.0
157F7.1AltitudeMeters99999.0
164F4.1QC for PressureCode (see below)99.0
174F4.1QC for TemperatureCode (see below)99.0
184F4.1QC for HumidityCode (see below)99.0
194F4.1QC for U Wind ComponentCode (see below)99.0
204F4.1QC for V Wind ComponentCode (see below)99.0
214F4.1QC for Ascension RateCode (see below)99.0

Fields 16 through 21 contain the Quality Control information derived at the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL). Any QC information from the original sounding is replaced by the following EOL Sounding Composite Format codes:

CodeDescription
99.0Unchecked (QC information is "missing.") ("UNCHECKED")
1.0Checked, datum seems physically reasonable. ("GOOD")
2.0Checked, datum seems questionable on physical basis. ("MAYBE")
3.0Checked, datum seems to be in error. ("BAD")
4.0Checked, datum is interpolated. ("ESTIMATED")
9.0Checked, datum was missing in original file. ("MISSING")

Sample Data

The following is a sample record of a CuPIDO high resolution rawinsonde data in EOL Sounding Composite 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:                         National Weather Service Sounding.
Project ID:                        0
Release Site Type/Site ID:         DRT Del Rio, TX
Release Location (lon,lat,alt):    100 54.00'W, 29 24.00'N, -100.900, 29.400, 314.0
UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):    2006, 06, 30, 23:09:00
Ascension No:                      1363
Radiosonde Serial Number:          84978459.CSN
Radiosonde Manufacturer:           VIZ B2
/
/
/
Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2006, 07, 01, 00:00:00
 Time  Press  Temp  Dewpt  RH    Ucmp   Vcmp   spd   dir   Wcmp     Lon     Lat   Ele   Azi    Alt    Qp   Qt   Qrh  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  978.8  26.8  19.2  63.0   -3.2    2.6   4.1 129.1 999.0 -100.900  29.400 999.0 999.0   314.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0
   6.0  974.5  26.5  18.4  61.0 9999.0 9999.0 999.0 999.0   6.5 9999.000 999.000 999.0 999.0   353.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0  9.0 99.0
  12.0  971.6  26.2  18.3  61.8 9999.0 9999.0 999.0 999.0   4.3 9999.000 999.000 999.0 999.0   379.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0  9.0 99.0
  18.0  968.1  25.8  18.1  62.4 9999.0 9999.0 999.0 999.0   5.3 9999.000 999.000 999.0 999.0   411.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0  9.0 99.0
  24.0  964.1  25.3  17.8  63.0 9999.0 9999.0 999.0 999.0   6.2 9999.000 999.000 999.0 999.0   448.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0  9.0 99.0
  30.0  960.1  24.9  17.6  64.0 9999.0 9999.0 999.0 999.0   6.0 9999.000 999.000 999.0 999.0   484.0 99.0 99.0 99.0  9.0  9.0 99.0

2.2 Station List

ID SITE STATE COUNTRY LONG LAT ELEV (m) Resolution
1Y7 1Y7 (GTS) AZ US -114.40000 32.87000 98.0 Man/Sig
ABQ Albuquerque NM US -106.60000 35.00000 1615.0 6 Second
DRT Del Rio TX US -100.90000 29.40000 314.0 6 Second
EDW EDW (GTS) CA US -117.92000 34.90000 724.0 Man/Sig
EPZ Santa Teresa NM US -106.70000 31.90000 1252.0 6 Second
GYM GYM (GTS) Sonora MX -110.80000 27.95000 12.0 Man/Sig
KAMA Amarillo, TX / 72363 TX US -101.70861 35.23250 1094.0 1 Second
KFGZ Flagstaff, AZ / 72376 AZ US -111.82027 35.23056 2179.0 1 Second
KMAF Midland, TX / 72265 TX US -102.18986 31.94267 873.0 1 Second
LAP LAP (GTS) Baja California Sur MX -110.33000 24.07000 14.0 Man/Sig
MCV MCV (GTS) Chihuahua MX -106.07000 28.70000 1428.0 Man/Sig
MGAUS01 MGAUS AZ US -999.99999 -99.99999 -9999.9 1 Second
MGAUS02 MGAUS AZ US -999.99999 -99.99999 -9999.9 1 Second
MGYM 76256 Empalme/Guaymas Sonora MX -110.82510 27.94180 12.0 2 Second
MMAN 76394 Monterrey Nuevo Leon MX -100.23410 25.89860 450.0 2 Second
MMCU 76225 Chihuahua Chihuahua MX -106.11670 28.70000 1482.0 2 Second
MMZC 76526 Zacatecas Zacatecas MX -103.75680 22.77140 2265.0 2 Second
MMZT 76458 Mazatlan Sinaloa MX -106.30100 23.14660 3.0 2 Second
MTY MTY (GTS) Nuevo Leon MX -100.20000 25.87000 450.0 Man/Sig
MZT MZT (GTS) Sinaloa MX -106.42000 23.18000 4.0 Man/Sig
NKX San Diego CA US -117.10000 32.80000 134.0 6 Second
NSI NSI (GTS) CA US -119.45000 33.25000 14.0 Man/Sig
NTD NTD (GTS) CA US -119.12000 34.10000 2.0 Man/Sig
TUS Tucson AZ US -110.90000 32.10000 787.0 6 Second