Dataset: Radiosonde
Deployment: VDT0410

Radiosonde profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction

Principal Investigator:

Dr Peter J. Minnett (University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, UM-RSMAS)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Stephen R. Gegg (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Project:

Surface-Ocean Lower-Atmosphere Studies Air-Sea Gas Exchange (Experiment) (SAGE)

Current State:

Final no updates expected

Version:

06April2010

Deployment Synonyms:

SOLAS-ANZ

Version Date:

2010-04-06

Data URL:

https://osprey.bco-dmo.org/dataset-deployment/453044/data

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Description

Radiosonde profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction

Radiosondes
Profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction were measured
using Vaisala RS80-GPS radiosondes carried aloft by helium balloons. A list of radiosonde
launches is given as the data file list. The data are transmitted from the sonde to a
shipboard receiver and these are stored at 2-s intervals by computer. This sampling
gives good height resolution in the atmospheric boundary layer, which is under the direct
influence of the fluxes through the sea surface. The radiosondes were generally launched
to coincide with the overpasses of the NASA Aqua earth observation satellite, as the
atmospheric profiles derived from the radiosondes can be used to validate satellite
retrievals of atmospheric temperature and humidity distributions.

Methods & Sampling

Dataset acquisition description

Refer to SAGE Voyage Report

Data Processing Description

Dataset Processing Description

BCO-DMO Processing Notes
Generated from original data and documentations files:
040401a.rs thru 040414a.rs (10 files)
rs_table.pdf

BCO-DMO Edits
MetaData (rs_table.pdf):
- Headers removed (data already in rs_table.pdf)
- File rs_table.pdf exported as text file
- date reformatted to YYYYMMDD
- time reformatted to HHMMSS
- parameter names modified to conform to BCO-DMO convention
Data (.rs files):
- parameter names modified to conform to BCO-DMO convention
- '//', '///' and '////' fields changed to nd

More information about this dataset deployment

Funding

Award Number	Funding Source
C01X0204	New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
C01X0223	New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
unknown SAGE ISAT	New Zealand International Science and Technology Fund
unknown SAGE NSF	National Science Foundation

Instruments

Radiosonde Vaisala RS80-GPS

Supplied Name: Radiosonde

Supplied Description:

Radiosondes

Profiles of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction were measured

using Vaisala RS80-GPS radiosondes carried aloft by helium balloons. A list of radiosonde

launches is given as the data file list. The data are transmitted from the sonde to a

shipboard receiver and these are stored at 2-s intervals by computer. This sampling

gives good height resolution in the atmospheric boundary layer, which is under the direct

influence of the fluxes through the sea surface. The radiosondes were generally launched

to coincide with the overpasses of the NASA Aqua earth observation satellite, as the

atmospheric profiles derived from the radiosondes can be used to validate satellite

retrievals of atmospheric temperature and humidity distributions.

Instrument Type

Generic Name: Radiosonde Vaisala RS80-GPS

Acronym: Radiosonde

Community Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L05/current/103/

Generic Description:

Vaisala RS80-GPS radiosondes carried aloft by helium balloons measure atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction. The GPS receiver of the GPS-radiosonde measures a shift in Doppler frequencies using a codeless detection and measurement technique. The measured Doppler shifts are a combination of satellite and radiosonde motion and contain the pertinent information for wind speed and
direction computation. Doppler frequency measurements of up to 8 satellites are sent to the ground equipment using a low bandwidth (1200 baud) digital link. New independent GPS Doppler measurements from the GPS-sonde are provided every 0.5 seconds for up to 8 channels with 24-bit resolution. The ground equipment computes the wind
speed and direction using the differential GPS concept. For more information see www.hobeco.net/pdf/RS80_GPS.pdf.

Parameters

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
Filename	Radiosonde data filename	text	no_bcodmo_term
date_UTC	Date of Launch (UTC)	YYYYMMDD	date
time_UTC	Time of Launch (UTC)	HHMM	time
lat	Launch latitude (South is negative)	decimal degrees	lat
lon	Launch longitude (West is negative)	decimal degrees	lon
Hmax	Max Height	km	no_bcodmo_term
Pmin	Minimum Pressure	hPa	no_bcodmo_term
N	Number of samples	integer	no_bcodmo_term
Id	Radiosonde Code Number	text	no_bcodmo_term
Time_Min	Elapsed time since launch (minutes plus seconds field)	minutes	no_bcodmo_term
Time_Sec	Elapsed time since launch (minutes plus seconds field)	seconds	no_bcodmo_term
Height	Height	meters	no_bcodmo_term
Pressure	Pressure	hPa	no_bcodmo_term
Temperature	Temperature	degrees Celsius	no_bcodmo_term
RH	Relative Humidity	percentage	no_bcodmo_term
Dewp	Dew Point	degrees Celsius	no_bcodmo_term
PotTem	Potential Temperature	degrees Kelvin	no_bcodmo_term
VapP	vapour pressure	hPa	no_bcodmo_term
MixR	(tbd)	g/kg	no_bcodmo_term
Dir	Wind Direction	degrees	no_bcodmo_term
Speed	Wind Speed	meter/second	no_bcodmo_term

Database

Contribute Data

Dataset: Radiosonde
Deployment: VDT0410

Dataset acquisition description

Dataset Processing Description

Database

Contribute Data

Dataset: RadiosondeDeployment: VDT0410

Dataset acquisition description

Dataset Processing Description

Dataset: Radiosonde
Deployment: VDT0410