SALLJEX: Upper Air Rio Branco Sounding Data (JOSS) 


1.0  General Description

This dataset consists of 58 soundings released from Rio Branco,
Brazil during The South American Low-Level Jet Experiment (SALLJEX), 
a component of the CLIVAR/VAMOS program. Rawinsondes were typically 
released at least once (00 UTC) per day and upto four times a day 
(OO or 06 and 12,18 and 21 UTC ) during Intensive Observing Periods 
(IOPs). This dataset contains profiles for 07 January 2003 thru 15 
February 2003. Vaisala rawinsondes employing GPS wind finding were 
utilized at Rio Branco during SALLJEX.

The sonde data were quality controlled at the Joint Office for Science
Support (JOSS) at NCAR, using methods similar to those used to quality
control the TOGA COARE sounding data (Loehrer et al., 1996; their
sections 3a-e). See section 5.0 for more details on JOSS quality control
procedures for the Santiago del Estero Sounding Data  


2.0  Parameters in Raw Dataset  

   
                 Parameters         Units      
                 --------------------------------------
                 Time                   Seconds    
                 Pressure               Millibars
                 Temperature            Deg C
                 Dew Point              Deg C
                 Relative Humidity      %
                 U wind component       m/s
                 V wind component       m/s
                 Wind Speed             m/s
                 Wind Direction         Deg
                 Ascension Rate         m/s
                 Longitude              Deg
                 Latitude               Deg
                 Range                  km
                 Azimuth Angle          Deg
                 Altitude               Geopotential Meters    
                 Pressure Quality Code  mb
                 Temp Quality Code      Deg C
                 Humidity Quality Code  Deg C
                 U comp Quality Code    m/s
                 V comp Quality Code    m/s
                 UV Quality Code        m/s
                 --------------------------------------


3.0  Conversion to JOSS CLASS format (ASCII text)

  
     3.1  The raw vertical resolution time, temperature,  
          relative humidity, altitude, pressure, dew point,
          wind direction, and wind speed were kept without change.

     3.2  The ascension rate was calculated for each data point
          (excluding the surface, where it was given a missing
          value) based on the altitude and time at two levels,
          the current time level and the previous time level.  If the
          data point for which the ascension rate was being calculated
          had missing time or altitude, the ascension rate was not
          calculated at that level and was flagged as missing.  If the
          data point prior to that for which the ascension rate was
          being calculated had a missing time or altitude, then the
          data point two data points prior to the present one was
          used, and so on until one with non-missing time and altitude
          was found.  If there are no non-missing previous data points
          the ascension rate is set to missing. 
 
     3.3  Due to CLASS format constraints, Dew Points less than
          -99.9 Deg C were given a value of -99.9 Deg C and were
          flagged as being questionable.


4.0  JOSS CLASS Format (ASCII text) Description


     4.1  Header records 
     
          The header records (15 total records) contain data type, project 
          ID, site ID, site location, actual release time, nominal release 
          time, and possibly other specialized information.  The first five
          header lines contain information identifying the sounding, and
          have a rigidly defined form.  The following 6 header lines are
          used for auxiliary information and comments about the sounding,
          and they vary significantly from dataset to dataset (For Rio Branco 
          these lines contain information on the radiosonde and other
          information).  This is the last time the dataset was released.  It
          has the format yyyymmddhh).  The next line (line 12) contains the
          Nominal date and time of the release.  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 six standard header lines are as follows:

     Line  Label (fixed to 35 char in length)           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:                        Time of release, in
                                                      format: 
                                                      yyyy, mm, dd, hh:mm:ss 
      12   UTC Nominal Release Time:                Nominal release time.
    

          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 six non-standard header lines may contain any label and
          contents.  The label is fixed to 35 characters to match the
          standard header lines.
     
          Sample header records are provided in the sample data file in 
          section 4.3.
     
     4.2  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 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                                                Missing
        No. Width     Parameter                    Units              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  Variable (see below)                             999.0
       14    5  F5.1  Variable (see below)                             999.0
       15    7  F7.1  Altitude                     Meters            99999.0
       16    4  F4.1  QC flag for Pressure         Code (see below)     99.0
       17    4  F4.1  QC flag for Temperature      Code (see below)     99.0
       18    4  F4.1  QC flag for Humidity         Code (see below)     99.0
       19    4  F4.1  QC flag for U Component      Code (see below)     99.0
       20    4  F4.1  QC flag for V Component      Code (see below)     99.0
       21    4  F4.1  QC flag for Ascension Rate   Code (see below)     99.0
      ----------------------------------------------------------------------


          Fields 13 and 14 are `variable' because depending on the sounding 
          system the variables used in these positions can vary.  For the
          Rio Branco soundings, these fields have been set to missing.
     
          Fields 16 through 21 contain the Quality Control information
          (flags) generated locally at JOSS.  These flags are based on the
          automated checks.  See Sections 5.0 for further information.
  
          The JOSS QC flags are as follows:
     
    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')
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   
     4.3  Sample data

         The following is a sample portion of a JOSS CLASS format file
         including header records.  The data portion is much longer than
         80 characters and, therefore, wraps around to a second line.


Data Type:                         High Resolution Sounding
Project ID:                        SALLJEX
Release Site Type/Site ID:         Rio Branco, Brazil BRB 82000
Release Location (lon,lat,alt):     67 52.20'W,  9 57.60'S,  -67.870,  -9.960,   
180.0
UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):    2003, 01, 14, 22:58:00
System Operator/Comments:          REV 8.31 using GPS    
Radiosonde Serial Number:          242408405
Input File:                        rb011500.txt
/
/
/
Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2003, 01, 15, 00:00:00
 Time  Press  Temp  Dewpt  RH    Ucmp   Vcmp   spd   dir   Wcmp     Lon     Lat  
 Ele   Azim   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  987.9  28.4  25.0  82.0    0.2   -1.7   1.7 353.0 999.0  -67.870  -9.960 
999.0 999.0   180.0  3.0  3.0  3.0 99.0 99.0  9.0
   2.0  987.0  28.1  24.8  82.0    0.2   -1.7   1.7 353.0   3.5  -67.870  -9.960 
999.0 999.0   187.0  3.0  3.0  3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0
   4.0  986.2  27.7  24.4  82.0    0.2   -1.7   1.7 353.0   4.0  -67.870  -9.960 
999.0 999.0   195.0  3.0  3.0  3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0
   6.0  985.4  27.4  24.1  82.0   -3.4    1.9   3.9 119.0   3.5  -67.870  -9.960 
999.0 999.0   202.0  3.0  3.0  3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0
   8.0  984.6  27.0  23.7  82.0   -3.4    1.9   3.9 119.0   4.0  -67.870  -9.960 
999.0 999.0   210.0  3.0  3.0  3.0 99.0 99.0 99.0
 
  
5.0  Quality Control Procedures 

 
     This dataset underwent the JOSS QC process which consisted of 
     internal consistency checks. The internal consistency checks included 
     gross limit checks on all parameters and vertical consistency checks 
     on temperature, pressure, and ascension rate.  
    

     5.1  Automated Quality Control Procedures

          5.1.1  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 Rio Branco 
                 Sounding Data. 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 > 40000 m      P, T, RH        Q
     Temperature        < -99.9C or > 40C           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 >  70 m/s       U             Q
                        > 150 m/s                  U             B
     V Wind Component   < 0 m/s or >  70 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
     ----------------------------------------------------------------

          5.1.2  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 values.  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
          from surface to 150 mb:
                        >  15 C/km (not applied
                                   at p < 150mb) P, T, RH        Q
                        >  30 C/km (not applied
                                   at p < 150mb) P, T, RH        B
          for pressures < 150 mb:
                        >   100 C/km (not applied
                                   at p > 150mb) P, T, RH        Q
                        >  10000 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
     ----------------------------------------------------------------
 
6.0 References

Loehrer, S. M., T. A. Edmands and J. A. Moore, 1996:  "TOGA COARE
upper-air sounding data archive:  development and quality control
procedures", BAMS, 77, 2651-2671.

Questions about the data should be directed to:


José Meitín
UCAR/JOSS
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO. 80307-3000
voice: 303 497-8168
fax: 303 497-8158
meitin@ucar.edu