Radiosounding systems

Contact person:
Marco Rosoldi

Balloon-based measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity and wind (speed and direction) through the troposphere and stratosphere are performed at CIAO using three different VAISALA MW41 radiosounding systems, two manual (fixed and mobile) and one equipped with an automatic launcher (VAISALA autosonde system AS13). The latter is able to perform up to 24 radiosoundings automatically and remotely controlled. Moreover, the system can also be scheduled for activating up to two spare radiosoundings in order to prevent any faults in the launch procedure. All MW41 systems are also able to manage the data received from the ozonesonde digital interface for measurements of the ozone mixing ratio atmospheric profile.

Since 2010, CIAO is a site of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN, www.gruan.org), providing long-term high quality measurements of atmospheric essential climate variables (ECVs) from the surface, through the troposphere, and into the stratosphere. These measurements are appropriate for studying atmospheric processes, for detection and analysis of trends, as well as for calibration and validation of measurements and retrieval algorithms from other ground-based and satellite observing systems or networks (for example, radiosoundings measurements are often used to calibrate ground-based Raman lidars for the retrieval of atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles).

Data available on:

https://www.gruan.org/data/file-archive/