High-Vertical Resolution Soundings Available for SGP and NSA

 
Published: 29 September 2014

A data visualization of the 1-second atmospheric measurements collected by the National Weather Service. The ARM External Data Center (XDC) now provides atmospheric soundings—vertical measurements of the atmospheric column—in 1-second resolutions collected by the National Weather Service (NWS) in netCDF format to the ARM Data Archive. Quality control is added by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

These weather balloon soundings record temperature, pressure, altitude, humidity, and winds for three locations in the Southern Great Plains (Norman, Oklahoma; Dodge City, Kansas; and Topeka, Kansas) and from the North Slope of Alaska (Barrow) facility. Over the last few years, each of these sites has increased the temporal resolution from 6 seconds to 1 second, yielding much higher vertical resolution. In addition, historical data sets, including facilities from the Tropical Western Pacific, are available in the ARM Data Archive at lower vertical resolutions.

To access these data, log in to the ARM Data Archive. (Request an account here.) For more information, please see the XDC National Weather Service Upper Air Measurements (NWSUPA) web page.