Arctic Water Vapor Climatology from Rawinsonde Stations

Arctic Water Vapor Characteristics from Rawinsondes, Version 1 is a gridded monthly-mean database assembled by NASA from fixed stations and Russian drifting ice stations. It contains variables like temperature, specific humidity, wind speed, and vapor flux across 15 pressure levels and five atmospheric layers. Data coverage spans from 1954 to 1991, structured on an octagonal grid centered over the North Pole.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in Arctic atmospheric humidity using specific humidity columns.
• Modeling vertical vapor transport with zonal and meridional vapor flux data across pressure levels.
• Studying Arctic atmospheric circulation patterns using geopotential height and wind speed variables.
• Investigating precipitable water changes over five defined atmospheric layers from the surface to 300 mb.

Strengths

• Combines data from multiple authoritative sources, including Russian North Pole drifting stations and NCAR archives.
• Provides a long temporal record, with some data series covering up to 37 years from 1954 to 1991.
• Offers detailed vertical resolution with variables available for 15 pressure levels and five integrated layers.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: the last update date is listed as both 1991-12-31 and 2026-03 13 across different platforms.
• Key structural details like row count, column names, and exact file size are unknown.
• Data is derived via interpolation of raw soundings, which may introduce smoothing artifacts.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), combining data from Russian North Pole drifting stations, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Historical Arctic Rawinsonde Archive.

Collection Method

Interpolation of raw sounding data from rawinsondes, combined from fixed and drifting station archives.

Time Range

1954 to 1991

Freshness

2026-03-13 10:20:25.289444

Geography

Arctic region, on an octagonal grid centered over the pole, extending to approximately 65 degrees North.