SGP/SONDE/C1 - CF sounding 20020522:1130 bad temperature/RH

It appears that the sonde sensor boom was damaged upon launch.  The result
is that no RH data are reported and the reported temperature is something on
the order of 60 degC too low.

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Altitude above mean sea level(alt)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• asc

SGP/SONDE/C1 - Bad T/RH data in CF sounding 20020523:1129

It appears that the sensor boom was damaged shortly after launch.  The
temperature reading jumps -60 degC and the RH goes to 0.

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Altitude above mean sea level(alt)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• asc

SGP/SONDE/C1 - CF sounding 20020609:0229 bad temp/rh/etc

The temperature and RH for this sounding look bad, either because of
interference from another sonde or because the temperature sensor was
broken on launch.  The sounding terminated early in any event.

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Altitude above mean sea level(alt)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• asc

SGP/SONDE/C1 - Incorrect Surface Pressure

It appears that the operator made a typographical error when entering the
surface pressure.  The file has 987.0 hPa and it probably should be 978.0
which would be consistent with the first sample provided by the radiosonde
(977.3 hPa), the surface pressures recorded for the adjacent soundings, and
the THWAPS pressure.

Because the sounding altitude is calculated assuming the surface pressure
is correct, the altitude values for the entire flight and the ascent rate 
values for the first 30 seconds of the sounding will be incorrect.

• Altitude above mean sea level(alt)
• asc

SGP/SONDE/C1 - Bad Temperature Sensor

It appears that the temperature sensor broke shortly after launch.  As a
result, the temperature and dewpoint values are incorrect.

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)

SGP/SONDE/C1 - Temperature sensor failure

Temperature sensor broke at launch.  All temperature-related variables
are incorrect.

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)

SGP/SONDE - Dry bias in sonde RH

Vaisala has confirmed ARM findings of an apparent dry bias in the
relative humidity measured by RS-80H radiosondes.  The cause of
the dry bias is thought to be contamination of the humidity sensor
by volatile organic substances originating from some plastic parts
of the radiosonde.  The amount of contamination is a function of
the time between the date of sonde manufacture and its use.  All
RS-80H sondes manufactured before week 34 of 1998 will show this
bias.  After week 34 of 1998 Vaisala changed its packaging to
reduce, but not eliminate the contamination problem.

Starting with RS-80 radiosonde manufactured in late June 2000 Vaisala
enclosed the sensor boom in an inert plastic shield, thereby eliminating
the contamination that caused the dry bias.

Starting in May 2001 at the SGP, May 2002 at the TWP, and later 2002
at the NSA, ARM has moved to using RS-90 radiosondes.  These sondes
are not subject to the contaminatino that caused the dry bias.

Vaisala is in the process of developing an algorithm that can be 
used to estimate the correct RH from knowledge of the sonde age.
All of the ARM sounding data have sufficient metadata available
to apply the correction.

Additionally, ARM has funded a Science Team effort (Milosevich) to
develop a 'best' correction algorithm for the RS-80 radiosonde humidity
data.  When completed this algorithm will allow us to reprocess the
accumulated RS-80 data and produce a new data platform with what we
hope will be more accurate data.

• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)

• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)

• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)
• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)

• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)

• Humidity, relative, at 21-m height, 30-min avg(rh)
• Dewpoint Temperature(dp)