Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-165-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-165-2022
Research article
 | 
11 Jan 2022
Research article |  | 11 Jan 2022

On the quality of RS41 radiosonde descent data

Bruce Ingleby, Martin Motl, Graeme Marlton, David Edwards, Michael Sommer, Christoph von Rohden, Holger Vömel, and Hannu Jauhiainen

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Justification for high-ascent attainment for balloon radiosonde soundings at GRUAN and other sites
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Cited articles

de Podesta, M., Bell, S., and Underwood, R.: Air temperature sensors: dependence of radiative errors on sensor diameter in precision metrology and meteorology, Metrologia, 55, 229, https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/aaaa52, 2018.  
Dirksen, R. J., Sommer, M., Immler, F. J., Hurst, D. F., Kivi, R., and Vömel, H.: Reference quality upper-air measurements: GRUAN data processing for the Vaisala RS92 radiosonde, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4463–4490, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4463-2014, 2014. 
ECMWF: ecCodes, ECMWF [code], available at: https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/ECC/ecCodes+Home (last access: 6 January 2022), 2021. 
Edwards, D., Anderson, G., Oakley, T., and Gault, P.: Met Office Intercomparison of Vaisala RS92 and RS41 Radiosondes, available at: https://www.vaisala.com/sites/default/files/documents/Met_Office_Intercomparison_of_Vaisala_RS41_and_RS92_Radiosondes.pdf (last access: 5 January 2022), 2014. 
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Short summary
Radiosonde descent data could provide extra profiles of the atmosphere for forecasting and other uses. Descent data from Vaisala RS41 radiosondes have been compared with the ascent profiles and with ECMWF short-range forecasts. The agreement is mostly good. The descent rate is very variable and high descent rates cause temperature biases, especially at upper levels. Ascent winds are affected by pendulum motion; on average, the descent winds are smoother.
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