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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Possibility to sound the atmospheric ozone by a radiosonde equipped with two temperature sensors, sensitive and non-sensitive to the long wave radiation

The sensitiveness of white coated thermistor sensors and non-sensitiveness of the gold coated over white thermistor sensors (which have been manufactured by a vacuum evaporation process) to long wave radiation were ascertained by some simple experiments in-room and also by analyses of some results of experimental soundings. From results of analyses on the temperature discrepancies caused by long wave radiation, the possibility to sound the atmospheric ozone partial pressure by a radiosonde equipped with two kinds of sensors, sensitive and non-sensitive to the long wave radiation was suggested, and the test results of the newly developed software for the deduction of ozone partial pressure in upper layers was also shown. However, it was found that the following is the necessary condition to realize the purpose. The sounding should be made by a radiosonde equipped with three sensors, instead of two, one being non-sensitive to the long wave radiation perfectly, and the other two also non-sensitive partially to the downward one, with two different angles of exposure upward. It is essential for the realization of the purpose to get two different values of temperature discrepancies simultaneously observed by the three sensors mentioned above and to avoid the troublesome effects of the upward long wave radiation.

Kitaoka, T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Production of a long-term global water vapor and liquid water data set using ultra-fast methods to assimilate multi-satellite and radiosonde observations

There is a well-documented requirement for a comprehensive and accurate global moisture data set to assist many important studies in atmospheric science. Currently, atmospheric water vapor measurements are made from a variety of sources including radiosondes, aircraft and surface observations, and in recent years, by various satellite instruments. Creating a global data set from a single measuring system produces results that are useful and accurate only in specific situations and/or areas. Therefore, an accurate global moisture data set has been derived from a combination of these measurement systems. Under a NASA peer-reviewed contract, STC-METSAT produced two 5-yr (1988-1992) global data sets. One is the total column (integrated) water vapor data set and the other, a global layered water vapor data set using a combination of radiosonde observations, Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Satellite (TOVS), and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data sets. STC-METSAT also produced a companion, global, integrated liquid water data set. The complete data set (all three products) has been named NVAP, an anachronym for NASA Water Vapor Project. STC-METSAT developed methods to process the data at a daily time scale and 1 x 1 deg spatial resolution.

Vonderhaar, Thomas H.↗
NASA NTRS1999

The Chilled-Mirror Humidity Sensor: Improved Radiosonde Measurements

Chilled-mirror humidity sensor technology recently was adapted for use with the VIZ radiosonde. The principle of the chilled-mirror operation is to lower its temperature until dew forms on the mirror, at that point the dew point temperature is noted and the mirror is then heated to evaporate the moisture. The cycle is repeated. Research conducted from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility has provided comparisons between the chilled-mirror sensor and the carbon hygristor of VIZ, and the capacitive sensors of AIR Inc. and Vaisala Co. We believe the chilled-mirror sensor is accurate and would serve as a reference standard for evaluating operational radiosonde relative humidity sensors. Thus, differences seen in the comparisons are beginning to furnish insight into developing better humidity sensors. We discuss these comparison results as well as reproducibility results from a dual chilled-mirror measurement.

Schmidlin, F. J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Unexplained Discontinuity in the US Radiosonde Temperature Data: Stratosphere - Part 2

In part I of this paper, the United States (US) radiosonde temperature data are shown to have significant and unexplained inhomogeneities in the mid-troposphere. This part discusses the differences between observations taken at 0 and 12 UTC especially in the stratosphere by the Vaisala RS80 radiosondes that are integrated within the National Weather Service's (NWS) Micro-ART system. The results show that there is a large maxima in the horizontal distribution of the monthly means of the 0/12 UTC differences over the central US that is absent over Canada and this maxima is as large as 5 C at 10 hPa. The vertical profiles of the root-mean-square of the monthly means are much larger in the US than those else where. The data clearly shows that the 0/12 UTC differences are largely artificial especially over the central US and originate in the post processing software at observing stations, thus confirming the findings in part I. Special flight data from the NWS's test facility at Sterling, Va. have been obtained. This data can be used to deduce the bias correction applied by Vaisala's post processing system. By analyzing the correction data, it can be shown that the inconsistencies with non-US Vaisala RS80 data as well as most of the large 0/12 UTC differences over the US can be accounted for by multiplying the reported elapsed time (i.e. time since launch) by the factor which is incorrectly applied by the post processing software. After being presented with the findings in this paper, Vaisala further isolated the source of the inconsistencies to a software coding error in the radiation bias correction scheme. The error effects only the software installed at US stations.

Redder, Christopher R.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Analysis of Raman Lidar and radiosonde measurements from the AWEX-G field campaign and its relation to Aqua validation

Early work within the Aqua validation activity revealed there to be large differences in water vapor measurement accuracy among the various technologies in use for providing validation data. The validation measurements were made at globally distributed sites making it difficult to isolate the sources of the apparent measurement differences among the various sensors, which included both Raman lidar and radiosonde. Because of this, the AIRS Water Vapor Experiment-Ground (AWEX-G) was held in October - November, 2003 with the goal of bringing validation technologies to a common site for intercomparison and resolution of the measurement discrepancies. Using the University of Colorado Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer (CFH) as the water vapor reference, the AWEX-G field campaign resulted in new correction techniques for both Raman lidar, Vaisala RS80-H and RS90/92 measurements that significantly improve the absolute accuracy of those measurement systems particularly in the upper troposphere. Mean comparisons of radiosondes and lidar are performed demonstrating agreement between corrected sensors and the CFH to generally within 5% thereby providing data of sufficient accuracy for Aqua validation purposes. Examples of the use of the correction techniques in radiance and retrieval comparisons are provided and discussed.

Whiteman, D. N.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Analysis of Raman Lidar and Radiosonde Measurements from the AWEX-G Field Campaign and Its Relation to Aqua Validation

Early work within the Aqua validation activity revealed there to be large differences in water vapor measurement accuracy among the various technologies in use for providing validation data. The validation measurements were made at globally distributed sites making it difficult to isolate the sources of the apparent measurement differences among the various sensors, which included both Raman lidar and radiosonde. Because of this, the AIRS Water Vapor Experiment-Ground (AWEX-G) was held in October-November 2003 with the goal of bringing validation technologies to a common site for intercomparison and resolving the measurement discrepancies. Using the University of Colorado Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer (CFH) as the water vapor reference, the AWEX-G field campaign permitted correction techniques to be validated for Raman lidar, Vaisala RS80-H and RS90/92 that significantly improve the absolute accuracy of water vapor measurements from these systems particularly in the upper troposphere. Mean comparisons of radiosondes and lidar are performed demonstrating agreement between corrected sensors and the CFH to generally within 5% thereby providing data of sufficient accuracy for Aqua validation purposes. Examples of the use of the correction techniques in radiance and retrieval comparisons are provided and discussed.

Whiteman, D. N.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Accuracy Assessment and Correction of Vaisala RS92 Radiosonde Water Vapor Measurements

Relative humidity (RH) measurements from Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are widely used in both research and operational applications, although the measurement accuracy is not well characterized as a function of its known dependences on height, RH, and time of day (or solar altitude angle). This study characterizes RS92 mean bias error as a function of its dependences by comparing simultaneous measurements from RS92 radiosondes and from three reference instruments of known accuracy. The cryogenic frostpoint hygrometer (CFH) gives the RS92 accuracy above the 700 mb level; the ARM microwave radiometer gives the RS92 accuracy in the lower troposphere; and the ARM SurTHref system gives the RS92 accuracy at the surface using 6 RH probes with NIST-traceable calibrations. These RS92 assessments are combined using the principle of Consensus Referencing to yield a detailed estimate of RS92 accuracy from the surface to the lowermost stratosphere. An empirical bias correction is derived to remove the mean bias error, yielding corrected RS92 measurements whose mean accuracy is estimated to be +/-3% of the measured RH value for nighttime soundings and +/-4% for daytime soundings, plus an RH offset uncertainty of +/-0.5%RH that is significant for dry conditions. The accuracy of individual RS92 soundings is further characterized by the 1-sigma "production variability," estimated to be +/-1.5% of the measured RH value. The daytime bias correction should not be applied to cloudy daytime soundings, because clouds affect the solar radiation error in a complicated and uncharacterized way.

Whiteman, David N.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Radiosondes for Characterizing the Martian Atmosphere

The National Weather Service (NWS) releases approximately 75,000 radiosondes each year to measure pressure, altitude, temperature, relative humidity, wind and cosmic radiation [1]. The data obtained from these measurements have led to a more thorough understanding of the Earth s lower atmosphere. On the contrary, there have been only six fully successful landings on Mars, and there is much less known about the variations in winds, density, etc., in the mid-regions of the Martian atmosphere (see Fig. 1). This data is vital to understanding Martian weather and the development of Mars landers for larger payloads [2,3,4]. Mars has too much atmosphere to land like is done on the moon, and too little atmosphere to land like is done on Earth. It is suggested that radiosondes could be added as secondary payloads on Mars missions and used to map physical properties in the different regions of the Martian atmosphere.

Schumacher, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Qualitative Comparison of IGRA and ESRL Radiosonde Archived Databases

Multiple databases of atmospheric profile information are freely available to individuals and groups such as the Natural Environments group. Two of the primary database archives provided by NOAA that are most frequently used are those from the Earth Science Research Laboratory (ESRL) and the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). Inquiries have been made as to why one database is used as opposed to the other, yet to the best of knowledge, no formal comparison has been performed. The goal of this study is to provide a qualitative comparison of the ESRL and IGRA radiosonde databases. For part of this analyses, 14 upper air observation sites were selected. These sites all have the common attribute of having been used or are planned for use in the development of Range Reference Atmospheres (RRAs) in support of NASA's and DOD's current and future goals.

Walker, John R.↗
NASA NTRS1967

Radiosonde data system.

Automatic radiosonde data processing system providing azimuth and elevation angles, temperature, humidity, etc

AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM↗
DOE OSTI2026

Supplemental material for paper "Radiosonde-to-Space (R2S) atmospheric specifications: Bridging observations and models for infrasound propagation"

This document describes the supplemental materials for the paper: TITLE: "Radiosonde-to-Space (R2S) atmospheric specifications: Bridging observations and models for infrasound propagation" DOI: xxxxxxxxxxx JOURNAL: TBD Written by Loring Schaible, September 17, 2025 This folder contains eight subfolders, each for a specific date and UTC time (in format YYYY-MM-DD_HH). All eight of these dates are exemplified and described in the manuscript. Within each folder is six documents. As an example, consider the folder "2022-12-31_00". The six files are comprised of: - Two text files (extension .txt) that describe the atmospheric specifications of Albuquerque, NM. One is the G2S model, the other is the R2S model. "G2S_2022-12-31_00.txt" "R2S_2022-12-31_00.txt" - Two text files (extension .dat) that contain the ground arrivals predicted by infraGA using the parameters described in the manuscript. One each for the two atmospheric specification models above, G2S and R2S. "G2S_2022-12-31_00.arrivals.dat" "R2S_2022-12-31_00.arrivals.dat" - Two image files (extension .png) that illustrate the predicted arrivals contained in the two files above. One image shows all arrivals as either black (G2S) or red (R2S). The other image shows the same but with arrivals common to both models in gray. "2022-12-31_00_Arrivals.png" "2022-12-31_00_DifArrivals.png"

Schaible, Loring Pratt [Sandia National Laboratori↗
DOE OSTI2026

Improved method for temporally interpolating radiosonde profiles in the convective boundary layer

A significantly improved technique for temporally interpolating radiosonde (RS) profiles of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio in the planetary boundary layer during daytime is introduced. The key innovation of this technique is its operation on a height grid normalized with the planetary boundary layer height. This study utilized a three-month dataset of three-hourly soundings from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Facility's Southern Great Plains site. The technique was evaluated for convective boundary layer cases, with the necessary boundary layer height data obtained from a ground-based infrared spectrometer. A total of 79 comparisons were conducted between reference soundings and interpolated profiles that did and did not employ height normalization. The results demonstrated a substantial improvement in the representation of interpolated profiles using the new technique, characterized by enhanced correlation, improved amplitude representation, and reduced bias for potential temperature, as well as improved correlation and reduced bias for water vapor mixing ratio.

convective boundary layer↗
DOE OSTI2021

Remote-sensing and radiosonde datasets collected in the San Luis Valley during the LAPSE-RATE campaign

Abstract. In July 2018, the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) hosted a flight week to showcase the role remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) can have in filling the atmospheric data gap. This campaign was called Lower Atmospheric Process Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE). In support of this campaign, ground-based remote and in situ systems were also deployed for the campaign. The University of Oklahoma deployed the Collaborative Lower Atmospheric Mobile Profiling System (CLAMPS), the University of Colorado deployed two Doppler wind lidars, and the National Severe Storms Laboratory deployed a mobile mesonet with the ability to launch radiosondes. This paper focuses on the data products from these instruments that result in profiles of the atmospheric state. The data are publicly available in the Zenodo LAPSE-RATE community portal (https://zenodo.org/communities/lapse-rate/, 19 January 2021). The profile data discussed are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3780623 (Bell and Klein, 2020), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3780593 (Bell et al., 2020b), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3727224 (Bell et al., 2020a), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3738175 (Waugh, 2020b), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3720444 (Waugh, 2020a), and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3698228 (Lundquist et al., 2020).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗