National Weather Service (NWS) High Resolution Radiosonde Data 1.0 General Description This is one of the upper air data sets developed for the Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud-systems in the Tropics (PREDICT) 2010 project. This data set includes 841 high vertical resolution (1-second) Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) soundings from National Weather Service (NWS) rawinsonde stations. For PREDICT this data set includes data from 1 August 2010 through 30 September 2010 for six (6) NWS stations (Key West, FL, Miami, FL, Tampa Bay, FL, Brownsville, TX, Corpus Christi, TX, and San Juan, Puerto Rico). At the request of GRIP investigators this data set also includes data from 1 September 2010 through 5 September 2010 for seven (7) stations along the east coast of the United States (Jacksonville, FL, Charleston, SC, Newport, NC, Sterling, VA, Upton, NY, Chatham, MA, and Gray, ME) for Hurricane Earl. The soundings were typically released twice a day (0000 and 1200 UTC) and any special releases are also included. The data are in EOL Sounding Composite format (columnar ascii). 1.1 Data Set Contact Steve Williams NCAR/EOL sfw@ucar.edu 2.0 Detailed Data Description 2.0.1 National Weather Service High-Resolution Sounding Algorithms The detailed description of the NWS Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) sounding collection and instrumentation is located in http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/RRS.htm 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 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 labels are padded to 35 characters to match the standard header lines. Records for the RRS data at the remaining stations include the following non-standard header lines: 6 Ascension Number: 64 7 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85081439 8 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Kaysam / GP26 9 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 8 / 0.700 10 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor 11 Surface Observations: P: 958.1, T: -2.6, RH: 65.0, WS: 10.8, WD: 305.0 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 PREDICT 2010 NWS Radiosondee upper air data in EOL ESC format. The data portion is much longer than 80 characters and, therefore, may wrap around to a second line. See section 2.1 for an exact format specification Data Type: National Weather Service Sounding/Ascending Project ID: PREDICT_2010 Release Site Type/Site ID: KKEY Key West, FL / 72201 Release Location (lon,lat,alt): 081 47.32'W, 24 33.18'N, -81.789, 24.553, 13.0 UTC Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): 2010, 09, 02, 17:36:33 Ascension Number: 483 Radiosonde Serial Number: 85158918 Balloon Manufacturer/Type: Totex / GP26 Balloon Lot Number/Weight: 32010 / 0.700 Radiosonde Type/RH Sensor Type: Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure / Sippican Mark IIA Carbon Hygristor Surface Observations: P: 1011.7, T: 999.0, RH: 61.0, WS: 3.1, WD: 110.0 Nominal Release Time (y,m,d,h,m,s):2010, 09, 02, 18:00:00 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 1011.6 31.0 22.6 61.0 -1.8 1.0 2.1 119.1 999.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 13.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 1.0 1011.1 30.8 22.5 61.2 -1.5 0.8 1.7 118.1 5.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 18.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 2.0 1010.5 30.6 22.4 61.5 -1.3 0.7 1.5 118.3 6.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 24.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 3.0 1009.8 30.4 22.2 61.7 -1.4 0.8 1.6 119.7 6.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 30.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 4.0 1009.1 30.2 22.1 61.9 -1.5 0.9 1.7 121.0 6.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 36.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 5.0 1008.3 30.0 22.0 62.2 -1.5 0.9 1.7 121.0 7.0 -81.789 24.553 999.0 999.0 43.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 99.0 2.2 Station List ID SITE STATE COUNTRY LAT LONG ELEV (m) SONDE TYPE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TJSJ San Juan -- PR 18.4 -66.0 3.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCHH Chatham MA US 41.7 -70.0 15.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCHS Charleston SC US 32.9 -80.0 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KGYX Gray (Portland) ME US 43.9 -70.3 124.0 Sippican Mark IIA KIAD Sterling VA US 39.0 -77.5 88.0 Sippican Mark IIA KJAX Jacksonville FL US 30.5 -81.7 10.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMHX Newport NC US 34.8 -76.9 11.0 Sippican Mark IIA KOKX Upton-Brookhaven NY US 40.9 -72.9 20.0 Sippican Mark IIA KBRO Brownsville TX US 25.9 -97.4 7.0 Sippican Mark IIA KCRP Corpus Christi TX US 27.8 -97.5 15.0 Sippican Mark IIA KKEY Key West FL US 24.6 -81.8 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA KMIA Miami FL US 25.8 -80.4 4.0 Sippican Mark IIA KTBW Tampa Bay FL US 27.7 -82.4 13.0 Sippican Mark IIA These soundings utilized the Global Positioning System (GPS) to derive the winds. NCAR/EOL did no additional processing to the wind data provided in these soundings. NCAR/EOL utilized the processed version of the RRS data. This means the data were smoothed and had corrections applied (e.g. solar radiation correction) by the NWS. NCAR/EOL conducted no additional processing to the data values. However, additional quality assurance was applied as described in the following section. 3.0 Quality Control Processing This dataset underwent an automated QC process. The dataset underwent internal consistency checks which included two types of checks, gross limit checks on all parameters and rate-of-change checks on temperature, pressure and ascension rate. Some further information on the QC processing conducted by EOL 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. EOL conducted the following gross limit checks on the T-REX NWS 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 > 1050 mb P B Altitude < 0 m or > 40000 m P, T, RH Q Temperature < -90C or > 45C T Q Dew Point < -99.9C or > 33C 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 6-sec data points (except at pressures less than 100 mb where 30-sec average values were used. 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 > 50 C/km (not applied at p < 250mb) P, T, RH Q > 100 C/km (not applied at p < 250mb) 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 _____________________________________________________________________ 3.3 Visual Checks All soundings were visually examined utilizing the EOL XQC tool which allows data quality flags to be adjusted. Visual examination is conducted only up to 50mb. 3.4 Data Quality Comments KBRO BRO_20100804114633 no RH above 580mb KBRO_20100922110758 no RH above 405mb KBRO_20100925230625 no data above 310mb KCHH KCHH_20100903053142 no RH above 210mb KCHS KCHS_201009012304 no GPS KCHS_20100902230403 noisy RH 550-400mb KCHS_20100903053308 noisy RH 570-480mb KCRP KCRP_20100802231508 no GPS KCRP_20100921230654 no RH above 345mb KCRP_20100922230648 no RH above 350mb KGYX KIAD KIAD_20100904110543 no GPS KJAX KKEY KKEY_20100908230156 no RH above 285mb KKEY_20100913230516 no RH above 390mb KKEY_20100929230141 no RH above 515mb KMHX KMIA KMIA_20100810111323 temp noisy 510-435mb KMIA_20100810111323 no RH below 370mb KOKX KOKX_20100902054000 no data above 175mb KOKX_20100903235635 no data above 510mb KTBW KTBW_20100803230547 no data above 300mb KTBW_20100822235132 no data above 525mb KTBW_20100822235132 noisy temp/RH 765-610mb KTBW_20100824230212.cls temp get cold above 380mb KTBW_20100904110340 no RH above 410mb (noisy above 500mb) KTBW_20100907110329 no RH above 395mb KTBW_20100913230426 no data above 195mb TJSJ TJSJ_20100807110800 no RH above 415mb TJSJ_20100818110900 no RH above 400mb TJSJ_20100823230939 no RH above 350mb TJSJ_20100905110929 no data above 960mb TJSJ_20100910230711 no RH above 590mb TJSJ_20100911110600 no RH above 495mb TJSJ_20100914232059 no RH above 595mb TJSJ_20100915110918 no RH above 630mb TJSJ_20100915230335 no RH above 470mb TJSJ_20100916232217 no RH above 500mb 4.0 RRS Code Tables The Radisonde Replacement System (RRS) soundings use a set of codes to define sections of the metadata for the sounding. The codes are included in the sounding headers and can be translated with the following tables. 4.1 Code Table 9-1 Radiosonde Type ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0-50 Defined or Reserved 51 VIZ-B2 (USA) 52 Vaisala RS80-57H 53-86 Defined or Reserved 87 Sippican Mark IIA with chip thermistor, pressure 88-254 Defined or Reserved 255 Mising value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2 Code Table 9-9 Balloon Manufacturer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 Kaysam 1 Totex 2 KKS 3-61 Reserved 62 Other 63 Missing value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3 Code Table 9-10a Type of Balloon ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Code | Meaning ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 GP26 1 GP28 2 GP30 3 HM26 4 HM28 5 HM30 6 SV16 7-29 Reserved 30 Other 31 Missing value ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 References Loehrer, S. M., T. A. Edmands, and J. A. Moore, 1996: TOGA COARE upper-air sounding data archive: development and quality control procedures. 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.