Sounding Data Inventory

Brief Description

To assist in intepreting the objective analysis products, a visual inventory of the sounding data in the vicinity of the LSA used in our analyses has been prepared. An example of this sounding inventory is shown in this figure for ten 6-hour time periods from 12 UTC on 11/06 to 18 UTC on 11/10/92. If upper-level sounding data were present at a station, an open circle was plotted at the station location. The filling of the circle, which is divided into forty 25 hPa slices, indicates the range of pressure levels over which data (either thermodynamic or winds) were available. In our convention the slices begin at 1000 hPa which is at 12 o'clock with pressure decreasing clockwise such that 750 hPa is at 3, 500 hPa is at 6, 250 hPa is at 9, and 0 hPa is again at 12. For example, a circle filled between 12 and 3 indicates that data is present fro m 1000 to 750 hPa, whereas a completely filled circle indicates that data is present from 1000 to above 25 hPa.

Also indicated on these maps is whether precipitation was occurring at the surface during the flight of the sonde. These observations come from the surface meteorological reports except at the land ISS sites where tipping bucket data were used. The tipping bucket instrument has a resolution of 0.254 mm and records data every minute. Precipation is indicated at the land ISS sites if any rain was recorded within one hour after the launch of the sonde. Precipitation is indicated by a thunderstorm symbol to the right of station circle. A "M" symbol indicates that the precipitation observation is missing at this time. An "I" symbol indicates that the sounding was interpolated from adjacent 6 hour periods.

Finally, to indicate regions of deeper convection, these maps contain stippled areas in which the brightness temperatures were colder than 235K. These areas were determined from hourly satellite data taken from the hour nearest to the sonde launch time. This digitized infrared (IR) Japanese GMS-4 satellite data at 11 km horizontal resolution were provided by T. Nakazawa. In this satellite dataset no information was available to the east of the dateline.

Accessing the Inventory Maps

Click here to view and download the visiual data inventory maps.