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DOE OSTI2026

Comparison of Radiosonde Datasets: SondeHub and Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive

SondeHub aggregates radiosonde telemetry data uploaded from community-run radiosonde receiver stations. This radiosonde telemetry dataset is open-source, available to anyone through Amazon S3. There are also other public radiosonde datasets such as National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)’s Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). While there are many similarities between the two datasets, there are many differences as well due to the nature of the two datasets: one is community-run, while the other is managed by a government agency. This report presents the result of analyzing and comparing the two datasets.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1986

Preliminary estimates of radiosonde thermistor errors

It has been long realized that radiosonde temperature measurements are subject to errors, not the least of which is the effect of long- and short-wave radiation. Methods of adjusting the daytime temperatures to a nighttime equivalent temperature were developed a number of years ago, and are used by some analysis centers. Other than providing consistent observations for analysis this procedure does not provide a true correction. The literature discusses the problem of radiosonde temperature errors but it is not apparent what effort, if any, has been taken to quantify these errors. In order to quantify this radiation error, radiosondes containing multiple thermistors with different coatings were flown at Goddard Space Flight Center/Wallops Flight Facility. The coatings employed had different spectral characteristics and, therefore, different absorption and emissivity properties. Discrimination of the recorded temperatures enabled day and night correction values to be determined for the US standard white-coated rod thermistor. The correction magnitudes are given and a comparison of US measured temperatures before and after correction are compared with temperatures measured with the Vaisala radiosonde. The US and Vaisala radiosonde data are from the recently completed WMO International Radiosonde Intercomparison held at Wallops. The corrections are in the proper direction, day and night, and reduce day-night temperature differences to less than 0,5°C between surface and 30 hPa. The present uncorrected temperatures used with the Viz radiosonde have day-night differences that exceed 1°C at levels below 90 hPa. Additional measurements are planned to confirm these preliminary results and determine the solar elevation angle effect on the corrections. The technique used to obtain the corrections may also be used to recover a true 'absolute' value and might be considered a valuable contribution to the meteorological community for use as a reference instrument.

Temperature measurement↗

NASA NTRS1983

A comparative study of measurements from radiosondes, rocketsondes, and satellites

Direct comparisons of operational products derived from measurements of radiance by satellites to measurements from conventional in situ sensors are important for the evaluation of satellite systems. However, errors in the in situ measurements themselves complicate such comparisons. Atmospheric temporal and spatial variability are also influential. These issues are investigated by means of a special field program composed of flights of dual radiosondes and multiple radiosondes launched near the time of NOAA-6 overpasses. Satellite derived mean layer temperatures, geopotential heights, and winds are compared with the same quantities determined from the in situ sensors. Of particular interest is the impact of in situ errors on these comparisons. It is shown that the radiosonde provides a precise pressure height relationship and therefore precise data for synoptic type use. Radar tracking of the radiosondes reveals, however, an imprecise pressure measurement which causes large differences between the actual altitude of the radiosonde and the altitude at which it is calculated to be. Radiosondes should be radar tracked and pressures calculated if the data are to be used for purposes other than synoptic use. Evaluation of rocketsonde data reveals a temperature precision of 1 to 2 K below about 55 km. Above 55 km, the precision decreases rapidly; rms differences of up to 11 K are obtained.

Nestler, M. S.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Radiosonde intercomparison

The largest amount of material ever collected from a radiosonde comparison was examined. Radiosondes from Australia, Finland, India, and the United States were involved. Data were received from 100 soundings, each of which was a simultaneous in situ test of four different instrument types. The simultaneous temperature comparison of participating operational radiosondes in daylight was about 1 C at the 100 hPa level and about 4 C at the 10 hPa level, while the corresponding comparison for geopotential was about 40 meters at 100 hPa and 100 meters at 10 hPa. Estimates of the reproducibility of standard level temperatures are given. The reproducibility obtained from the in situ comparisons is, in general, slightly better than corresponding results from monitoring measurements in a real-time mode at analysis centers. Conclusions from the intercomparison are many; the following call for particular attention: (1) fully automated radiosonde systems were able to reproduce geopotential measurements better than non-automated systems, mainly due to a decrease in observer mistakes; (2) observed temperature differences between radiosonde measurements were as large during the night as during the day; and (3) significant inconsistencies still exist between the night time and day time measurements, as well as significant bias errors in the pressure measurements of some radiosonde types.

Schmidlin, F. J.↗

DOE OSTI2026

ARM Radiosondes for SNPP/JPSS Validation Field Campaign Report

This field campaign extension has been a coordinated effort involving the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) project to validate NOAA Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) temperature and moisture sounding products from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instruments on board the NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellite platforms. In this arrangement, funding for radiosondes and balloons was provided by the JPSS project to ARM. These radiosondes were launched coincident with NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellite overpasses at the ARM field sites at Eastern North Atlantic (ENA), North Slope Alaska (NSA), and Southern Great Plains (SGP). Combined with other ARM data, an assessment of the radiosonde data quality was performed and post-processing corrections applied. The dedicated radiosondes were integrated into the NOAA Products Validation System (NPROVS+), which collocated the radiosondes with satellite products (NOAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA], European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites [EUMETSAT], Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite [GOES], Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate [COSMIC]) and numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecasts for use in product assessment and algorithm development. This work is a part of the NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 satellite retrieval validation efforts and provides critical accuracy assessments of the temperature and water vapor soundings.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1976

Comparison of layer thickness as observed by Nimbus E microwave spectrometer and by radiosonde

Atmospheric layer thicknesses observed by the microwave spectrometer of the Nimbus E satellite are compared with radiosonde-derived thicknesses for selected short periods. An average 45 m rms discrepancy is found for the 100-50 kPa layer, and several sources of this discrepancy are quantified in the following way. Correlation coefficients between pairs of spectrometer observations and between pairs of radiosonde observations are each extrapolated to zero separation distance to provide measures of instrument noise. Microwave spectrometer noise is found to be 16 m rms and radiosonde noise 23 m rms. Estimates are also made of those portions of the total discrepancy which are due to different resolution of the sensors (about 15 m rms) and real spatial and temporal variation of the atmosphere between observations (about 17 m rms).

Wilcox, R. W.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Temperature distribution from radiosonde and satellite measurements

Since air temperatures derived from satellite radiance measurements often contain large errors, a method is suggested for combining radiosonde and satellite measurements to achieve better accuracy. In particular, when geostationary satellite radiances become available, it would be possible to use the satellite measurements to interpolate geographically between the radiosonde stations, and also to extrapolate in time from one radiosonde launch time until the next launch time. Simulated radiance data were used to test this method in a region of possible severe local storm development, and the accuracy obtained by using real scanning microwave spectrometer data was determined.

Fritz, S.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Visible infrared spin-scan radiometer atmospheric sounder radiometric calibration - An inflight evaluation from intercomparisons with HIRS and radiosonde measurements

The ability to conduct soundings from a geostationary platform has been demonstrated with the Visible IR spin-scan radiometer Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) aboard GOES-4. While a negative offset reaching 2.0-3.0 C for the upper atmospheric CO2 bands of VAS was observed in comparisons with High Resolution IR Radiation Sounder (HIRS) measurements and analyses of radiosonde data, VAS radiances are consistent with that material. After removing the offset, the temperature profiles derived from VAS radiances agree very well with those observed by radiosondes. Time variations in the atmospheric state are discernible from VAS soundings at three-hour intervals, and were confirmed by radiosonde observations.

Menzel, W. P.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Can the standard radiosonde system meet special atmospheric research needs

As a part of a rather comprehensive study of instrument reliability and error analysis, 21 balloon-borne dual radiosonde flights were launched and tracked with a precision C-band (FPS-16) radar as well as with the usual radiosonde tracking system. Radar provides an independent means for obtaining altitude data of order 10 meter accuracy. The 18 successful flights were investigated to determine repeatability of the pressure and temperature measurements. The obtained results show that the current aneroid pressure cell is the least repeatable member of the radiosonde's measurement components. Generally, the rms differences of the pressure measurements were found to be between 1 and 2 mbar throughout the altitude range of the instrument. Although these errors are large, they are not serious in the context of synoptic use. However, serious consideration must be given to these instrumental characteristics in connection with single station, nonsynoptic research objectives.

Schmidlin, F. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Intercomparison of planetary-scale diagnostics derived from separate satellite and radiosonde time-mean temperature fields

The planetary-scale components of the extratropical Northern Hemisphere troposphere-stratosphere 1973-74 winter circulation are diagnosed using separate time-mean temperature fields based on radiosonde and satellite observations. Meridional cross-sections of zonal wind together with, for zonal wavenumbers 1, 2 and 3, the streamfunction amplitude, phase and Eliassen-Palm flux are displayed, with the relative accuracy of the satellite-derived diagnostics assessed through comparison with the 'ground-truth' radiosonde information. The satellite and radiosonde diagnostics compare most favourably in terms of zonal wind speed and shear, direction of wave propagation and meridional wave structure - all of which are closely related to the differential properties of the atmospheric temperature field. The intensity of the satellite-derived patterns of tropospheric wave propagation is underestimated due to the effects of spatial smoothing and residual cloud contamination present in the satellite radiance measurements.

Miles, T.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Observations of frontal zone structures with a VHF Doppler radar and radiosondes, part 1.2A

The SOUSY-VHF-Radar is a pulsed coherent radar operating at 53.5 MHz and located near Bad Lauterbert, West Germany. Since 1977, the facility, operated by the Max-Planck-Institut fur Aeronomie, has been used to make a series of frontal passage observations in the spring and fall. Experiments in winter have been difficult because part of the transmitting and receiving array is usually covered by snow during that part of the year. Wavelengths around 6 m are known to be sensitive to the vertical temperature structure of the atmosphere (GREEN and GAGE, 1980; RASTOGI and ROTTGER, 1982). Thus, it has been possible to use radars operating at frequencies near 500 MHz to locate the tropopause. Comparisons between radar data and radiosonde data have shown that there is a large gradient in the radar reflectivity at the height where the radiosonde tropopause occurs. An experiment carried out by ROTTGER (1979) on March 15 to 16, 1977, showed that the radar's sensitivity to the vertical temperature structure could also be used to locate the position of fronts. The SOUSY-VHF-Radar consists of a transmitting array, also used for receiving in some configurations, that can be scanned in the off-vertical direction but not at sufficiently low elevation angles to study the horizontal extent of structures.

Larsen, M. F.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Radiosonde pressure sensor performance - Evaluation using tracking radars

The standard balloon-borne radiosonde employed for synoptic meteorology provides vertical profiles of temperature, pressure, and humidity as a function of elapsed time. These parameters are used in the hypsometric equation to calculate the geopotential altitude at each sampling point during the balloon's flight. It is important that the vertical location information be accurate. The present investigation was conducted with the objective to evaluate the altitude determination accuracy of the standard radiosonde throughout the entire balloon profile. The tests included two other commercially available pressure sensors to see if they could provide improved accuracy in the stratosphere. The pressure-measuring performance of standard baroswitches, premium baroswitches, and hypsometers in balloon-borne sondes was correlated with tracking radars. It was found that the standard and premium baroswitches perform well up to about 25 km altitude, while hypsometers provide more reliable data above 25 km.

Parsons, C. L.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Comparison of LIMS temperatures and geostrophic winds with Berlin radiosonde temperature and wind measurements

The temperature and the derived winds obtained from the LIMS Map Archival Tape data for the period of October 25, 1978, to May 28, 1979, were compared with corresponding data from the Berin (Tempelhof) radiosonde station at several representative levels in the stratosphere, to assess the quality of the LIMS satellite data for use in dynamics and transport studies. It was found, on the basis of this single-station time series comparison, that the synoptically mapped LIMS temperature and wind analyses are of a sufficiently high quality for investigating large-scale dynamics in the stratosphere in conjunction with high-resolution radiosonde measurements.

Grose, W. L.↗

NASA NTRS1964