EXPLANATION OF R/V KNORR LABRADOR SEA DEEP CONVECTION EXPERIMENT RAWINSONDE DATA SET Peter Guest, Data Manager Naval Postgraduate School Department of Meteorology 589 Dyer Rd, Room 254 phone: 1-408-656-2451 FAX: 1-408-656-3061 email: pguest at nps.edu File created: June 18, 1997 Last revised: June 20, 1997 (see note on wind speed) 1. INTRODUCTION This directory contains rawinsonde data from the Labrador Sea Deep Convection Experiment R/V KNORR 1997 cruise which was primarily sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research. Rawinsondes were launched from the KNORR for the period 3 Feb - 13 March, 1997. Dr. Guest's time and most of the rawinsondes were funded by Office of Naval Research, High Latitude Dynamics Division Major support on the ship and some of the rawinsondes were provided by a group led by Karl Bumke Institute Fuer Meereskunde Department of Maritime Meteorology Duesternbrooker Weg 20 24105 Kiel Germany phone: +49 431 597 3874 email: kbumke@ifm.uni-kiel.de Other members of Dr. Bumke's group were (all at same address) Hauke Berndt Uwe Karger Klaus Uhlig 2. File Format Information Total number of data files: 206 Filenames: LSmmddhh.ASC where mm = month; dd = day; hh = hour (UT) indicating nominal launch time (use header for actual launch time) Format: ASCII Space-delineated columns with two line header First line of header contains the following: latitude decimal degrees not minutes longitude " (at start, balloon drifts) launch height always 4 m date (dd 'month' 97) month is either FEB or MAR time hh:mm actual launch time (UT) # of data points in sounding Second line of header contains data column labels and should be self-explanatory. The first column, "Duration" is the time in minutes after launch. IMPORTANT NOTE: The wind speed label is wrong. Wind speed is in KNOTS not M/S as labeled. Divide wind speed by 1.9438 to get m/s. Missing Data Value: -99 Example of first 8 lines from a 1200 point sounding: 45.00 N 60.29 W 4 m 3 FEB 97 11:21 GMT 1200 Duration Geop(m) Pr(hPa) Ta(C) RH(%) Td(C) WDir WS(m/s) .000 4. 1025.4 -1.6 75. -5.4 290. 14.6 .033 11. 1024.5 -1.4 71. -5.9 290. 14.6 .067 18. 1023.6 -1.2 66. -6.7 282. 14.0 .100 27. 1022.5 -1.2 65. -6.9 282. 14.0 .133 38. 1021.1 -1.3 66. -6.8 278. 13.8 .167 49. 1019.7 -1.5 67. -6.8 278. 13.8 Data quality has been quickly checked from inspection of plots, but it is likely some minor errors remain. 3. System Specifics (contact data manager for more details) Receiving Hardware: Vaisala Marwinsonde Rawinsonde model: Vaisala RS80-15N Data rate: 2 seconds for 1st 10 minutes, 5 seconds thereafter Smoothing PTU : none Smoothing Winds : 4 minute? unknown type Balloons: 100 gms, ~1.5 m diameter