CuPIDO 2006 Quality Controlled Radiosonde Data Set - Addendum 1.0 General Description The NCAR/EOL GAUS radiosonde data set was converted into the EOL Sounding Composite format for CuPIDO. The format described in the included PDF document is incorrect. The correct format is described within this addendum. 2.0 Detailed Data Description 2.1 Detailed Format Description All upper air soundings were converted to the National Center for Atmospheric Research/Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL) Sounding Composite Format (ESC). 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: 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 GMT Launch 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 labels are padded to 35 characters to match the standard header lines. Records for this dataset include the following three non-standard header lines. Line Label (padded to 35 char) Contents 6 Ascension No: 1299 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 152551614 8 Radiosonde Manufacturer: Vaisala 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 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 Elevation Angle Degrees 999.0 14 5 F5.1 Azimuth Angle 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 NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR/EOL). Any QC information from the original sounding is replaced by the following EOL 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 MGAUS Sounding Rawinsonde upper air data in EOL ESC 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: NCAR GAUS/Ascending Project ID: CuPIDO Release Site Type/Site ID: mgaus01_2006_07_24_straftoncanyon Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 110 40.89'W, 32 30.35'N, -110.682, 32.506, 1388.9 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2006, 07, 24, 16:01:58 Post Processing Comments: Aspen Version Reference Launch Data Source/Time: Vaisala WXT510/16 Sonde Id/Sonde Type: 061354787/Vaisala RS92-SGP (ccGPS) System Operator/Comments: Bryan/none, Good Sounding / / Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2006, 07, 24, 16:01:58 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 ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -------- ------- ----- ----- ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -1.0 860.1 30.7 8.6 24.7 -1.6 1.9 2.5 141.0 999.0 -110.682 32.506 999.0 999.0 1388.9 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 9.0 0.0 859.8 30.1 8.4 25.3 -0.8 2.0 2.1 158.5 4.1 -110.682 32.506 999.0 999.0 1392.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 1.0 859.4 29.7 8.2 25.6 -1.1 2.0 2.3 151.1 4.3 -110.682 32.506 999.0 999.0 1396.1 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 2.0 859.0 29.4 8.2 26.0 -1.4 2.0 2.4 144.4 4.7 -110.682 32.506 999.0 999.0 1400.7 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 3.0 858.5 29.2 8.2 26.3 -1.7 1.9 2.6 138.4 5.0 -110.682 32.506 999.0 999.0 1405.6 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0 99.0