High resolution radiosonde data: data set description page


Data set source
Information on available Data
Quality Control Processing
Data format
References
Data selection page
High resolution (between 2s and 10s) data from radiosounding stations.

Data set source

  • Radiosounding Stations Participating in Fastex
  • 29 regular stations of the WMO World Weather, performing 4 soundings a day. For 9 of them, until 4 additional soundings a day during IOPs.
  • Ships Participating in Fastex
  • The KNORR 4 soundings a day + 9 additional soundings (90 minutes rates during 18 h long) during 5 IOPs + Labsea experiment soundings
  • Le SUROIT 4 soundings a day + 9 additional soundings (90 minutes rates during 18 h long) during 10 IOPs
  • The Victor Bugaev 4 soundings a day + 9 additional soundings (90 minutes rates during 18 h long) during 10 IOPs -> 283 soundings
  • The Ægir 4 soundings a day + 9 additional soundings (90 minutes rates during 18 h long) during 10 IOPs
  • ASAP Ships 7 ships (about 4 ships simultaneously) during Fastex operating between 2 and 4 soundings a day


    • Information on available data in the FASTEX Central Archive

    sitenumber of soundings
    29 ground stations6785
    The KNORR 282
    Le SUROIT271
    The Victor Bugaev283
    The Ægir264
    ASAP Ships506
  • Their position during FASTEX.
  • For more information on these sites.


    • Quality Control Processing

  • Data providers validation
    Each set of data was validated by the data providers before sending it to the FASTEX Central Archive.
  • FASTEX Central archive checking
    Skew-T plots of each sounding are produced and manually reviewed for internal consistency. Consistency between low-resolution and high-resolution data are checked.
  • UCAR/JOSS Procedures (available since November 97)
    Automated quality control procedures (gross limit checks and vertical consistency checks) and visual quality control procedures.


    • Data format

    All upper air soundings were converted to the UCAR/JOSS CLASS Format (OCF). OCF is an ASCII format consisting of 15 header records for each sounding followed by the data records with associated QC information.

    References

    Snyder, J. P., 1987: Map Projections - A Working Manual. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 1395, 383 pp.
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    Updated: 2 February 1999