QCed upper air 5mb NAME sonde data from 00Z 07/01/05 to 08/16/05 00Z This file was last updated on: 01 September 2005 ******************** History ********************************************** * - means that file for this site has changed Version # and release date WMO # site name # of v1.1 v2.0 v3.1 sondes 03/24/05 08/31/05 03/11/09 20002 Puerto Penasco MX 121 * * * 20003 Kino Bay MX 125 * * * 20004 Los Mochis MX 207 * * * 20005 Loreto MX 175 * * * 20006 R/V Altair MX 152 * * * 20007 R/V Fran. de Ulloa MX 35 * 72230 Alabaster US 97 * 72233 Slidell US 97 * 72235 Jackson US 101 * 72240 Lake Charles US 88 * 72248 Shreveport US 95 * 72249 Fort Worth US 90 * 72250 Brownsville US 97 * 72251 Corpus Christi US 97 * 72261 Del Rio US 133 * * 72265 Midland US 133 * * 72274 Tucson US 132 * * 72293 Miramar US 131 * * 72327 Nashville US 97 * 72340 Little Rock US 94 * 72357 Norman US 96 * 72363 Amarillo US 128 * * 72364 El Paso US 130 * * 72365 Albuquerque US 133 * * 72376 Flagstaff US 139 * * 72381 Edwards US 29 * 72387 Mercury US 136 * * 72393 Vandenburg US 91 * 72440 Springfield US 94 * 72451 Dodge City US 94 * 72456 Topeka US 93 * 72469 Denver US 92 * 72476 Grand Junction US 91 * 72489 Reno US 93 * 72493 Oakland US 93 * 72558 Omaha US 94 * 72562 North Platte US 92 * 72572 Salt Lake US 93 * 72582 Elko US 93 * 72597 Medford US 93 * 72645 Green Bay US 94 * 72649 Chanhassen US 89 * 72662 Rapid City US 94 * 72672 Riverton US 91 * 72681 Boise US 94 * 72694 Salem US 93 * 74099 Yuma (4 sites) US 377 * * 74455 Davenport US 96 * 74560 Lincoln US 95 * * 74626 Phoenix US 185 * 76225 Chihuahua MX 160 * * 76256 Empalme MX 152 * * 76382 Torreon MX 154 * * 76394 Monterrey MX 112 * * 76405 La Paz MX 167 * * 76458 Mazatlan MX 158 * * 76526 Zacatecas MX 154 * * 76595 Cancun MX 43 * 76612 Guadalajara MX 42 * 76644 Merida MX 78 * 76654 Manzanillo MX 36 * 76679 Mexico City MX 85 * 76692 Veracruz MX 46 * 76723 Isla Socorra MX 28 * 76805 Acapulco MX 44 * 78583 Belize BZ 75 * 78762 San Jose CR 173 * total 67 sites 7309 ****************** Inventory ********************************** Number Type Number Estimate of of sites of sondes number missing Enhanced sites: hi-res data interpolated to 5 mb 10 USA-NWS enhanced 1380 17 6 ISS, Loreto,2 ships 815 10 7 SMN enhanced 1057 30 1 Yuma (4 sites comb.) 377 9 1 San Jose 173 12 25 subtotal 3802 78 Operational sites: gts resolution interpolated to 5 mb 33 USA-NWS operational 3030 41 8 SMN operational 402 57 1 Belize 75 17 42 subtotal 3507 115 67 total 7309 193 **************** Release Notes ****************************************** V1.0 - field phase data at native resolution are available from JOSS at http://www.joss.ucar.edu/name/dm/archive/ V1.1 - only ISS sites and R/V Altair were released V2.0 - QC of the height field was done by comparing the observed station height to NCEP interpolated values to the site lat/lon location. Both time series and IOP means were compared. In this manner obvious station hgt biases were detected. For example, at 76225 the IOP mean NCEP height field was ~13 m higher at all the standard pressure levels. This suggested that the starting launch height for this site was incorrect. At 76225 (Chihuahua) 13m was added to geopotential hgt at all levels. At 76382 (Torreon) 11m was added to geopotential hgt at all levels. At 20005 (Loreto), initially at fifteen sonde times the height QC flag was set to questionable (if difference between obs and NCEP 500 mb hgt interpolated to Loreto lat/lon location was > 20m but < 30m) or bad (if difference between obs and NCEP 500 mb hgt was > 30 m). Note Loreto did not have a functioning sfc met site to use for a check on the sfc sonde pressure. As a result the bottom pressure was taken from the sonde itself resulting in height errors at all levels. The scheme outlined above QCed the worst cases. In the final V2.0 release it was deemed necessary to set to questionable the height QC flag at all remaining times because of the lack of surface calibration at this site. At 74004 (Yuma) 18m was added to the height field at all levels. At 72280 11 times the height QC flags was set to questionable or bad using criteron above. In all but one case the 72280 hgt field was much higher than NCEP's. At 74626 (Phoenix) several times the qh flag was set to 3 (questionable), see notes at Loreto for details, and 10 meters was added to all levels. We suspect that humidity errors may exist in the SMN sonde data. It was noted in the past that SMN sondes rarely exhibit saturated layers. However, until this dry bias is investigated further and a correction scheme is proposed, no changes will be made to sonde dataset. V3.1 Humidity corrections applied to Vaisala sites in Tier 1 domain (see Ciesielski et al. 2009 for additional details). For Tier 1 domain sites synthetic soundings at 06 and 18Z were created by doing a time interpolation from surrounding times and merging in profilers winds at the NCAR ISS. These synthetic soundings can be identified by noting the NLVLS (number of vertical levels) value is a negative number. Pibal sondes (winds as a function of height) are also included in this release. These sondes are denoted by wmo numbers in their file names from 21001 to 21021. *************************************************************************** Please report any problems found in the QCed sonde data to Paul Ciesielski at: paulc@atmos.colostate.edu ***************************************************************************