A Radiosonde Correction Using Prelaunch Sonde Data

Richardson, S.J. (a), Tobin, D. (b), Revercomb, H. (b), and Lesht, B.M. (c), University of Oklahoma (a), University of Wisconsin-Madison (b), Argonne National Laboratory (c)
Eleventh Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

Corrections to the radiosonde dry bias and batch to batch variability is examined using SGP Central Facility dual sonde launches from the third Water Vapor Intensive Observation Period. Past attempts have been made to correct sondes by scaling them using a single reference point (in time) observation (THWAPS or tower measurement). These single point adjustments have not successfully brought agreement between MWR and sonde PWV estimates. In this study, radiosonde prelaunch data, i.e., data collected prior to sonde launch, is used to scale the sondes instead of the instantaneous launch value. It appears possible to account for batch to batch variability using several minutes of prelaunch sonde data whereas the single point observation contains too much variability.

Note: This is the poster abstract presented at the meeting; an extended version was not provided by the author(s).