Cover title."Atmospheric General Circulation Technical Document No. 1.

Kung, Ernest C.

McInnis, D. H. (Donald Haskell)

University of Missouri: MOspace

· Edited NSSL Meso • Scale Upper Air Network Data in Southwestern Oklahoma 1966 and 1967 Ernest C. Kung, Principal Investigator Donald ". MGlnnis, Research Assistapt Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Missouri . Columbia Atmospheric General Circulation ~ Technical Document No.1 , ~ The original soundings were supplied by the National Severe Storms Laboratory, ESSA. The work documented in this report has been supported by the Atmospheric Sci-ence Division, National Science Foundation under NSF Grant GA-1287. A contribution from the Missouri Agricultural EX!)eriment Station. Special Re-port Series Number SR 108. GENERA L REMARKS A systematic observational study of the atmospheric energy balance is in progress with the support of the National Science Foundation. As our major objective of the research project is the large-scale energy diagnosis, one phase of our study concerns the energy relationship between large-scale and small-scale processes . Thus, the meso-scale energy analysis emerges as a highly desirable step, especially when we contemplate the problem of the energy cascade from macro- to micro-scale. It is also recognized that the study of the meso-scale energy budget is one of the much-needed links in bridging the existing gap between the macro- and micro-scale meteorological studies. The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) of ESSA at Norman, Oklahoma, has conducted a series of atmospheric soundings over a network of 10-11 stations located principally in southwestern Oklahoma. The net-work was not in continous operation , but was activated prior to expected stormy weather. Although the data collected were intended for research in the meteorology of severe local storms, to the best of our knowledge this is one of the very few data sources of the deSired type mentioned a-bove. Proper spacing of the network stations, more than enough vertical and time resolutions , and the proper documentation of the balloon position during ascent should be particularly mentioned. From the records of individual soundings supplied by the NSSL , we extracted and edited portions of the data which are relevant to our study. They were then listed on a magnetic tape in a format suitable for use as a direct digital input for general purposes. The pilot study on the meso-scale energy budget using these edited data is in progress now. The data we edited are very limited in size since they are only a part of the NSSL soundings. However, the existence and availability of meso-scale network data in this format may provoke the general interest of meteorologists. It is hoped that in the future we can compile a more extensive amount of the data of the same series as our study in this phase progresses. We are very grateful for the courtesy of Dr. E. Kessler, Director of the NSSL for making the soundings available to us. We are also indebted to Mrs. K. Gray of NSSL for her kind and able assistance during our data compilation. D. H. McInnis, an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Southwest Missouri State College , Springfield, is currently in our doctoral program. The maj or task of editing the soundings and generating the data tape was assigned to him. Thus, the subsequent documentation of the data in this note is by him. 3 Ernest C. Kung Principal Investigator NSSL SOUNDINGS The NSSL soundings are physically contained in seven magnetic tapes. These data consist of processed soundings taken during the periods from May, 1966, to June, 1966 , and from May , 1967 , to June, 1967. In addition to the usual meteorological parameters , these tapes contain a large quantity of special analyses which were omitted in our data editing. A few remarks concerning the nature of the data are in order. The time and space resolutions of this series of soundings have a unique value. The eleven sounding stations can be enclosed by a circle of radius equal to 160 km. There exist sequences of soundings taken as close together as one hour by a single sounding station. The number of levels in the soundings is high , up to about 118 from the surface to 100 mb., for example. Reported intervals range from around 15 mb. near the surface to less than 5 mb. at levels near 100 mb. The pOSition of released balloons during ascent was properly recorded. It should not be forgotten that these soundings are sta-tistically heavily weighted toward stormy conditions. EDITED DATA TAPE The data we have extracted from the NSSL tapes occupy one reel of magnetic tape. We have attempted to list all of the basic meteorological and geographical parameters for all available soundings having no process-ing irregularities. This effort has involved a number of data processing programs which have searched the NSSL tapes for thermodynamic and wind parameters which were not recorded together. We built separate thermo-dynamic and wind tapes, and then merged them together into the final tape. Soundings with miSSing levels, with mismatched thermodynamic-wind sequences, with misplaced data positions, or with improper data characters were automatically rejected and listed separately. These error listings are on file awaiting analysis. Since in many cases these errors are only minor misalignments, a number of soundings will be corrected and added to the final tape sometime in the future. The tape consists of a list of levels, each sounding being followed immediately by its chronological successor. Each level record contains the same sequence of parameters, and these parameters are sufficient for their self-identification. In total the tape contains 546 edited soundings consisting of information secured at a total of 55,044 levels (records). 4 The parameters in the final tape are listed below in the order in which they occur in each record: 1. "STA": (STATION) A tvvo-digit number. For identification, see Appendix 1. 2. "DATE": The launching date (Greenwich time), given as a five-digit number: month-day-year. (Thus 52266 indicates May 22, 1966.) 3. "TIME": The launching time (Greenwich time), given as a four-digit number: hour (00-23) and minute. 4. "S.N.": (SERIAL NUMBER) NSSL's sounding identification number, listed here for purposes of checking with the original NSSL tapes. 5. "M": An integer designating the position of each level within a sounding. It starts with 1 and ends with the total number of levels in a particular sounding. 6. "TI": Time from release in minutes. 7. "P": Pressure of the level in milibars. 8. "HT": Geopotential height of the level above MSL in meters. 9. "TC": Temperature in degrees C. 10. "DPD": Dew-point depression (DPD = TC - TD) in degrees C . 11. "RH": Relative humidity in percent. 12. "AM": Actual mixing ratio in grams per kilogram. 13. "TV": Virtual temperature in degrees K. 14. "DIM": (A smoothed value of DIR.) 15. "SPM": (A smoothed value of SPD.) 16. "DIR": The direction from which the wind is blowing in degrees clockwise from North. 17. "SPD": Wind speed in meters per second. 18. "DISP": Balloon displacement in kilometers from the point of release. 19. "AZM": Azimuth in degrees from balloon to site. Two appendices follow. Appendix I lists the names and exact loca-tions of all stations. Stations 1-11 were used in 1966; stations 1-10 were used in 1967. A map showing the locations of these stations is also attached. Appendix II gives the tape location and format of each of the parameters listed above. 5 APPENDIX I STATION LOCATIONS The accompanying map gives the locations of the NSSL stations with nearby USWB standard upper-air stations (0 ) shown for comparative pur-poses. The table below gives the latitude, longitude, and height above mean sea level for the eleven stations. STATION NO. CODE LAT. LONG. HEIGHT Wichita Falls. Texas 1. SPS 33.97° N 98.48°W 311m Fort Sill. Okla. 2. FSI 34.65 98.40 361 Altus AFB. Okla. 3. LTS 34.70 99.33 436 Ringling. Okla. 4. RIN 34.17 97.58 276 Chickasha, Okla. 5. CHK 35.10 97.97 350 Tinker AFB. Okla. 6. TIK 35.42 97.38 388 Pauls Valley. Okla. 7. PVY 34.70 97.22 296 Cordell, Okla. 8. COR 35.30 98.97 483 Watonga. Okla. 9. WAT 35.85 98.42 473 Oklahoma City. Okla. 10. OKC 35.40 97.60 393 Childress AFB. Texas 11. CDS 34.43 100.30 595 NATIONAL SEVERE STORMS LABORATORY 1966-1967 MESOSCALE UPPER-AIR NETWORK o DDC • WAT o AMA FSI • • CDS 50 miles o ABI o MAF • Denotes NSSL Upper-Air Station o Denotes USWB Standard Network Upper-Air Station • ~ OKC TIK .. .CHK PVY • o FTW o SHV APPENDIX II TAPE FORMAT All soundings are in chronological order, sorted as follows: first by date, then by launch time, and finally, numerically by station. (The stations are identified by integers 1-11.) The data for each sounding level constitutes a record, and there are ten records to a block. The entire data tape constitutes a single file. The last level of a given sounding is followed immediately by the first level of the next sounding. There are no record marks at the end of the records. Each record is 90 characters long, divided as follows: POSITION PARAMETER FORMAT 1 - 3 STA 13 4 - 8 DATE 15 9 - 12 TIME 14 13 - 18 S.N. 16 19 - 21 M 13 22 - 26 TI F5.2 27 - 32 P F6.1 33 - 38 HT F6.0 39 - 43 TC F5.1 44 - 47 DPD F4.1 48 - 52 RH F5.1 53 - 57 AM F5.2 58 - 62 TV F5.1 63 - 66 DIM F4.0 67 - 70 SPM F4.1 71 - 74 DIR F4.0 75 - 78 SPD F4.1 79 - 84 DISP F6.3 85 - 90 AZM F6.2 7 

Edited NSSL meso-scale upper air network data in southwestern Oklahoma, 1966 and 1967

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