Launches of Vaisala RS-80 radiosondes during the cruise were undertaken by Chris Fairell and the on-board Environment Canada's ASAP van. SSEC policy for in-house use is to use CLASS sonde files.
An attempt was made to launch four synopic sondes each day at the hours 0Z, 6Z, 12Z and 18Z. Some of these are missing due to hostile launching conditions, a declining helium and sonde supply towards the end of the cruise, and other reasons. During intense research periods in the vicinity of Manus Islands, up to four additional sondes were launched per day.
Two separate archives for the CLASS sondes exist. First, a set of ASCII files is available (which is a direct recording from the CLASS receiving station); second, SSEC-compliant NETCDF files. The latter set has the advantage of being compatible with existing NETCDF processing software; however some parameters from the original file are not included.
There are also two separate archives of radiosonde profile gifs: individual ascents and multiple (day by day) ascents. Individual sonde ascent profiles include relative humidity, temperature, and dewpoint temperature plots (altitude vs temperature (Celsius)) and can be accessed through the ASCII archive (see below). For faster connections, users may prefer Multiple-ascent Radiosonde Profile Graphs which group all sonde ascents by day. These are plotted as pressure (mb) versus absolute temperature and dewpoint temperature (Kelvin).
GO TO ASCII ARCHIVE (includes individual GIF profiles)