SAFARI 2000: Upper Air Meteorological Profiles from South Africa

594 radiosonde launches provide vertical profiles of atmospheric conditions across nine South African sites from August to September 2000. The Vaisala RS80 sondes measured pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction from the surface to 30 km altitude. This data was collected to augment the regional sounding network during the SAFARI 2000 Dry Season Campaign.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical wind shear and stability based on wind speed and direction profiles.
• Studying humidity gradients and atmospheric moisture transport using relative humidity data.
• Validating regional climate model outputs against in-situ temperature and pressure observations.
• Investigating synoptic-scale weather patterns across southern Africa during the dry season.

Strengths

• Contains a specific count of 594 individual atmospheric profiles.
• Covers a defined two-month campaign period (August-September 2000) across nine geographic locations.
• Specifies the instrument model (Vaisala RS80) used for data collection.

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are not specified in any source, limiting immediate usability.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2000 vs. 2026) suggest potential metadata inconsistencies across platforms.
• The license is ambiguously described as 'other-license-specified' without clear terms.

Provenance

Source

University of Wyoming, collected for the SAFARI 2000 campaign.

Collection Method

Balloon-borne radiosonde launches.

Time Range

August 1, 2000 to September 30, 2000

Freshness

2026-04-09 (most recent update from datagov, though this may be a metadata refresh)

Geography

Nine sites in South Africa: Pietersburg (Polokwane), Pretoria (Irene), Bethlehem, Springbok, De Aar, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Gough Island.