WMOD00371

• Title: HIPLEX Rawinsonde - SKEW T-LOG P Analyses, 1979
• Date: 6/1/1980
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

3. RAWINSONDE DATA REDUCTION AND QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES

Special HIPLEX rawinsondes are observed and reduced in
accordance wi th standard NWS procedures outl ined In Federal
Meteorological Handbook No.3 [6], The strip-chart contact point
data are tabulated for automatic data processing in the EDN in real
time as the sounding is launched. Special raob processing programs
[3] are used to convert contact point and calibration data into
standard engineering uni ts. which are then checked for internal
consistency and possible errors noted interactively as the sounding
is processed on the Service's central computing faci I ity. The
rawinsonde operator is responsible for checking the possible errors
against the original sounding contact points. The operator then may
correct any errors and accept the sounding for automatic archival in
the EDN. The total time required to set up. calibrate. launch. and
pro c e s s a sou n din gin the E DN for fin a I arc h i val i s g e n era I I y 2 h 0 u r s
for a launch to the 100-mbar press,ure level.

The final step in quality control of soundings generally occurs
in the field when the forecaster uses the sounding as plotted on a
skew T-Iog P diagram for the dai Iy briefings. However. this report
s e r v e sad u a I r 0 I e 0 f doc u mer. tat ion 0 f sou n din g san d qua lit y con t r 0 I .
Any obvious errors in winds or temperature-dewpoint plots are readi Iy
detected in these plots.

Note that the Big Spring (BG) HIPLEX site IS the standard Texas
HIPLEX reporting site which routinely entered all soundings directly
into the EDN in real time, The other 6 mesonet stations were
processed on hand calculators for prel iminary real-time analyses and
were later quality controlled under the direction of Dr. James
Scoggins and entered on the EDN 6 months after the field season [2].

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