Atlantic Stratocumulus Rawinsonde Atmospheric Profiles from 1992

Rawinsonde Level I data from the 1992 ASTEX field experiment, comprising 203 atmospheric soundings. The dataset contains raw, irregularly spaced measurements of thermodynamic and wind properties collected via radiosonde. It was produced by the LARC_ASDC organization and captures observations from a specific field campaign conducted from June 1 to June 28, 1992.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical profiles of thermodynamic variables like temperature and humidity from the raw Level I data to study atmospheric stability during cloud transitions.
• Investigate wind shear and directional changes with altitude using the raw wind data, though it requires additional filtering as noted in the documentation.
• Compare raw Level I data with processed Level II data to understand the impact of interpolation and quality control on derived meteorological features.
• Validate satellite-derived cloud property retrievals by correlating in-situ atmospheric profile data from the soundings with coincident satellite observations mentioned in the experiment design.

Strengths

• Contains 203 individual atmospheric soundings from a coordinated field experiment.
• Provides high-vertical-resolution raw data prior to processing and interpolation.
• Data is specifically tied to a well-documented, targeted scientific mission (ASTEX) designed for model improvement.

Limitations

• Wind data is noted to require additional filtering before use, indicating potential quality issues.
• The dataset is temporally limited to a single month (June 1992) and geographically focused on the eastern North Atlantic.
• Raw Level I data is at irregular pressure and height levels, requiring processing for uniform analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earthdata platform, from the LARC_ASDC (Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center).

Collection Method

Data gathered in real-time by the Atmospheric Instrumentation Research (AIR) radiosonde system during the ASTEX field campaign.

Time Range

June 1 to June 28, 1992.

Freshness

Data collection ended on 1992-06-28; it is a historical snapshot with no ongoing updates.

Geography

Eastern North Atlantic Ocean, specifically the ASTEX study region.