Radiosonde Atmospheric Profiles from the 1992 ASTEX Campaign

First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) Santa Maria Radiosonde Data contains interpolated atmospheric sounding profiles from weather balloons launched from Santa Maria. The dataset was collected by the LARC_ASDC organization during a specific field campaign from June 1 to June 28, 1992. It provides three sets of interpolated data at different resolutions: 5-second, 20-meter, and 2-millibar intervals.

Use Cases

• Validate GCM cloud parameterizations using measured profiles of temperature, pressure, and relative humidity.
• Analyze the vertical structure of marine atmospheric boundary layers using height, ascent rate, and wind speed/direction data.
• Study humidity gradients and cloud formation processes with dew point and mixing ratio columns.
• Correlate atmospheric state variables like pressure and temperature with time-synced observations from other campaign instruments using the launch date-time group.

Strengths

• Data covers a focused 28-day intensive observation period for a specific scientific campaign.
• Provides three complementary interpolated resolutions (5-second, 20-meter, 2-millibar) for analysis flexibility.
• Each profile contains up to 1500 data points across 10 measured variables, offering detailed vertical resolution.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a single month in 1992, restricting analysis of seasonal or long-term trends.
• Geographic coverage is from a single launch site (Santa Maria), limiting spatial representativeness.
• Data is over 30 years old, which may affect relevance for studying current climate conditions.

Provenance

Source

LARC_ASDC (NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center).

Collection Method

Collected via radiosonde (weather balloon) launches during the FIRE ASTEX field campaign.

Time Range

June 1, 1992 to June 28, 1992.

Freshness

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Geography

Santa Maria launch site (specific latitude and longitude recorded per launch).