Global Upper Air Observations from 1962 to 1972

12 hourly reports of upper air data were collected globally from March 1962 to December 1972. The National Meteorological Center (NMC) operationally gathered radiosonde, pibal, and aircraft reports via the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). This data served as primary input for NMC's modeling and forecasting and for major reanalysis projects.

Use Cases

• Analyze temperature and dewpoint trends at mandatory pressure levels from 1000mb to 10mb.
• Model wind patterns using wind direction and speed data from radiosonde and aircraft reports.
• Study atmospheric stability using geopotential height deviations (d-value) reported in the data.
• Validate reanalysis model outputs against this historical observational dataset.
• Track the frequency and distribution of ship-launched versus land-launched observation reports.

Strengths

• Global synoptic coverage provides data from both land and ship stations.
• 12-hourly frequency offers a detailed temporal resolution for daily analysis.
• Data includes reports from multiple sources: radiosondes, pibals, and aircraft.
• Used as primary input for major reanalysis projects (NCEP/NCAR and ECMWF).

Limitations

• Data format is a blocked version of the NMC Office Note 20 (ON20) format, requiring specialized RPTOUT software for access.
• Observational coverage and density in 1962-1972 may be less complete than modern datasets.
• Data ends in December 1972; for later periods, a separate dataset (DS353.4) is required.

Provenance

Source

National Meteorological Center (NMC) operational collection.

Collection Method

Reports received via the Global Telecommunications System (GTS), decoded and reformatted using Automated Data Processing (ADP).

Time Range

March 1962 to December 1972.

Freshness

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Geography

Global.