NUCAPS Sounding Availability over the northern CONUS
The animation above shows NUCAPS sounding availability plots from sequential NOAA-20 overpasses on 5 August 2021. Stations that are north of about 39 N will occasionally see profiles from two sequential overpasses, as was the case above at Buffalo NY, and also Pittsburgh PA. A benefit of NUCAPS soundings is that they show up halfway between 0000 and 1200 UTC upper-air soundings. The animations below show 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC soundings from Buffalo (top) and Pittsburgh (bottom) with two soundings from NUCAPS from the closest point to the upper air launch.
When sequential overpasses happen, a forecaster can use information to tell how things are changing on 90-minute timescales. Even with only one profile, however, one can view changes between the synoptic upper-air soundings. It is worth mentioning a couple obvious differences between the two data sources: Radiosondes are sampling a line that moves up in the atmosphere over a period of time (up to two hours!); that line can extend over a significant horizontal distance; in contrast, NUCAPS observations are volumetric and instantaneous. NUCAPS profiles are very smooth compared to radiosondes, and extreme values, or very thin layers are unusual in NUCAPS profiles.
NUCAPS profiles are available at this OSPO site. Gridded NUCAPS fields are here.