WBAN-31 Adiabatic Charts contain thousands of historical weather observations recorded by the Weather Bureau, Army, and Navy. The collection spans from the 1930s to the mid-1990s, covering stations worldwide. Parameters include pressure, height, temperature, dew point depression, wind direction, and wind speed.
Use Cases
- Analyze long-term trends in upper-air temperature and pressure from the 1930s to 1990s.
- Model historical atmospheric conditions using pressure, height, and dew point depression data.
- Study wind speed and direction patterns across global stations over a 60-year period.
- Compare analog paper form records from the early 20th century with digital records from the mid-1970s onward.
Strengths
- Thousands of records spanning over 60 years from the 1930s to mid-1990s.
- Global spatial coverage with stations located throughout the world.
- Contains six major meteorological parameters per observation.
Limitations
- Bulk of the collection is available only on microfilm, limiting digital accessibility.
- Transition from paper forms to digital records in the mid-1970s creates a format discontinuity.
- Specific row counts, file formats, and sample sizes are unknown.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA_NCEI via NASA EarthData.
- Collection Method
- Observations recorded on WBAN-31 forms by rawinsonde and radiosonde instruments.
- Time Range
- Primarily 1930s to mid-1990s.
- Freshness
- Data collection ended in the mid-1990s, with a last updated date of 1995-06-30.
- Geography
- Global coverage with stations located throughout the world.