Climate and Global Change Notes
3-1
Upper-air Measurements
Radiosonde Rawinsonde
Science Concepts
Observing Climate - Upper Air
Climate and Global Change Notes
3-2
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Observing Climate - Upper Air
U.S. Upper-Air Observations
Radiosonde Movie
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/educ/radiosnd.rm
Climate and Global Change Notes
3-3
Observing Climate - Upper Air
U.S. Upper-Air Observations
• Radiosonde instrument package
- Pressure- Temperature- Relative Humidity
• Rawinsonde - Trackedradiosonde
- Winds
http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/
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Climate and Global Change Notes
3-4
Observing Climate - Upper Air
Radiosonde
• 2 m (6 ft) wide hydrogen or helium filled balloon filled
• Rises at about 300 m/min (about 1,000 ft/min)
• Tracking positionyields wind speed and direction - called a rawinsonde. New system will use GPS
• Flight can last more than 2 h
• Can ascend to over 35 km (about 115,000 ft) and drift more than 200 km (about 125 miles)
http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap07/hodo.html
Shipley, S.T, 2005: GIS applications in meteorology - Or adventures in a parallel
universe. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 86, 171-173..
Note drift distance during sonde’s flight, especially in regions of high
speed winds denoted by red shading (Isotachs - Contour of
wind speed)
Climate and Global Change Notes
3-5
Observing Climate - Upper Air
Radiosonde
• When the balloon expands too large (about 6 m or 20 ft in diameter), it bursts and a small parachute slows the descent minimizing the danger to lives and property
• Data (temperature, dewpoint temperature, and wind speed and direction) is plotted on a graph (Skew-T Log-p diagram) depicting the sounding versuspressure
http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap07/hodo.html
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Temperature
DewpointTemperature
Winds
Climate and Global Change Notes
3-6
Observing Climate - Upper Air
U.S. Upper-Air Sites
http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/nws_upper.htm
Climate and Global Change Notes
3-7
Observing Climate - Observing Site
Balloon Inflation Shelterwith Radiotheodolite
radome
Rain GageInstrument
Shelter
CupAnemometer
Wind Vane
InstrumentTower
http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/
Typical WeatherService Observing Site