1. GAUS Radiosonde Operator Training
Plains Elevated Convection at Night
GAUS Radiosonde Operator Training

2. Big Picture Facility request PIs, NSF, EOL Pre-project preparations
EOL, PIs, Operators
Deployment
Operators, EOL, PIs
Data post processing
EOL, Operators
Delivery of the best Qced data

3. Recommended Procedures
Metadata: Electronic and paper logs
Correct GAUS system setup (mobile vs fixed; computer clock)
Best pre-launch sonde data: Aspirators and co-locations with surface met sensors.
Best surface met data: Accuracy, calibrations and co-locations with sondes
Balloon filling: rise rate > 3m/s
In-field data quality monitoring: bad sounding examples

4. Electronic Log
Electronic and paper logs are to be used during each project at each site.
Please enter sonde ID numbers and all launch dates/time in UTC on the first line of your paper log entry. Also, on this line please note if a launch occurred.
A. After sounding is complete, you can obtain the filename and enter it into column one.
B. If sfc sensor measurements are not available, please note transfer of sonde values
D. No flow meter but standard assent rate is ~5 m/s. (??)
G. Note time of burst and if sounding was manually terminated
H. Please note here if problems occurred (icing of balloon, loss of signal)
F. Anything that might affect data quality (ie, launch near a building)

5. Comparisons of prelaunch radiosonde and surface data
(both in field and post-processing)
INDOEX: contamination dry bias and SAH (sonde data are drier than surface data by 5.3% on average. By examining a couple of things, we found that the dry bias is a combination of CDB and SAH. After corrections of CDB and SAH, two have much better agreements.
STEPS: (after changing the drying agent). The surface sensor was not propertly ventilated, so warmer surface T, drier surface data, indicating slightly drier sonde data.
ISPA02 and IHOP: the aspirator used for collecting prelaunch data draws the air from the surface and leads drier prelaunch data. As a result, our engineer/technician team designed a new aspirator
ere is one example of real-time and post data QC by comparing …

6. Evidence of Sensor Arm Heating
Sondes Consistently
Warmer & Drier
(especially during mid-day)

7. Best Surface Met Data
Placement of the surface met tower should be at the same height, from where you are launching. Please make sure surface met tower sensors are 6 feet above ground and placed over ground cover similar to that where the launch is occurring.
The Campbell surface met sensor, typically used in the ISS, began experiencing problems towards the end of August. Due to these errors, the temperature and RH surface measurements in all of the sounding data files were replaced with surface measurements from a co-located WXT surface met sensor. The pressure and wind data are still that from the Campbell. There were two exceptions to this. The sounding D _180302, still contains surface data from the Campbell sensor because there was no WXT data available on that day. Also, D _ has temperature and RH prelaunch sonde data entered in as surface met because the Campbell was not working properly at that time, and a CSTARS surface sensor that had been temporarily used (for this day only) was incorrect as well. The right hand panels of Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the scatter plots after the corrections were made. Pressure differences seen in Figure 5 are still under investigation.

8. Common Operator Errors:
Common Data Issues:
Weakening or loss of sonde signal (System lock up)
Icing/Strong Vertical Downdrafts (descent of balloon)
Broken hygrometer (missing data or RH offsets)
Common Operator Errors:
Rushed launch (resulting in failure of launch detect)
Failure to complete all steps of the GAUS software before balloon release.
The following sounding files needed repair because they experienced sounding system lock-up caused by weakening or loss of the radiosonde signal. The original sounding files were not saved in the correct format or to the correct file names. They contained no LAU (launch) or A00 (surface met) data lines, and were missing the standard 19 line tail at the end of the raw data file; all things necessary in order for ASPEN to run properly. Data before the lock-up was preserved, however anything measured by the radiosonde after the lock-up was lost. Filenames for these soundings were changed to reflect the actual launch time, determined by pressure change and GPS dz/dt, and surface met data collected just prior to launch was retrieved and entered into the sounding files.
The soundings listed below experienced errors with the automatic launch detect, which relies on change in pressure to determine when the balloon release occurs. In these cases, the launch detect was triggered early. No data is lost when this occurs, however data recorded prior to launch is incorrectly recorded as “in-flight” rather than “pre-launch”, and the filenames and launch times are incorrect. These soundings have all been corrected for premature launch detect and the original and new filenames are listed below. 
 If it is early LD, should the time in the corrected file name be later the one in the original one?

9. Frozen Sensors (CUPIDO)
T drop > 50C at ~550 hPa

10. RS92 Twin-Humicap Hygrometers
40s heating, 60s measurements

11. Hygrometer offset Broken Hygrometer Note differences
Between RH1 and RH2

12. Five soundings from Olaya (Ship) during VOCALS-2008
Red: good
Blue/green/orange: bad RH at cold T
Yellow: bad RH profile

13. Five soundings from RV-Olaya (RH in lower troposphere)
Red: good
Blue/green/orange: bad RH at cold T
Yellow: bad RH profile

14. RH1/RH2 profiles (v.s. time) for orange sounding in Slide #1)
(longer time taken for the sensor boom to reach equilibrium from the heating)
Note that the heating occurs quickly since the battery does the work, but the transition from the heating to the ambient environment only relies on natural ventilation, and the sensor boom has a huge mass.

15. D-file Format Header (A11, LAU) Prelaunch (PXX) Sonde (SXX) Tail
GAUS-T01 STA
GAUS-T01 COM GMT GMT Air Air Rel Wind Wind Vert GPS GPS Geopoten GPS Sonde Sonde GPS Wind GPS
GAUS-T01 COM Sonde Date Time Press Temp Humid Dir Spd Veloc Longitude Latitude Altitude Wnd RH1 RH2 Snd Error Altitude
GAUS-T01 COM ID yymmdd hhmmss.ss (mb) (degC) (%) (deg) (m/s) (m/s) (deg) (deg) (m) Sat (%) (%) Sat (m/s) (m)
GAUS-T01 COM
GAUS-D01 A
GAUS-T01 LAU
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
GAUS-D01 P
Header (A11, LAU)
Prelaunch (PXX)
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
GAUS-D01 S
Sonde (SXX)
GAUS-T01 COM Data Type/Data Channel: GAUS SOUNDING DATA, Channel 1
GAUS-T01 COM Project Name/Mission ID: Hallett Obs Met Class, Class #1
GAUS-T01 COM Launch Time (y,m,d,h,m,s): /04/13, 23:04:52.25
GAUS-T01 COM Sounding Name: none
GAUS-T01 COM Sonde ID/ID$/Type/Sensors: , Z , Vaisala RS92-SGP (ccGPS), RS92-SGP (binary coeff)
GAUS-T01 COM Sonde Frequency: MHz
GAUS-T01 COM Sonde Baseline Errors (p,t,h1,h2): mb, C, %, %
GAUS-T01 COM Sonde Dynamic Errors (p,t,h): mb, C, %
GAUS-T01 COM Pre-launch Obs Data System/Time: none, 23:04:52.00
GAUS-T01 COM Pre-launch Obs (p,t,d,h): mb, C, C, %
GAUS-T01 COM Pre-launch Obs (wd,ws): deg, m/s
GAUS-T01 COM Pre-launch Obs (lon,lat,alt): deg, deg, m, ( 'W, 'N)
GAUS-T01 COM Operator Name/Comments: none, Great Sounding. 1st one with the students.
GAUS-T01 COM Standard Comments: none
GAUS-T01 COM Software Version Feb 2005; Adds: bug fix
GAUS-T01 COM Format Version NOAA Mar 2004; Adds: timestamp resolution increased to 0.01 sec; GPS Lon & Lat resolution increased to 6 digits; GPS Altitude data field
GAUS-T01 COM Met/Wind Offset: ptu data leads wind data by sec
GAUS-T01 END
Tail