A radiosonde (Sonde is French for probe) is a unit for use in weather balloons that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them to a fixed receiver. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people A weather or sounding balloon is a Balloon (specifically a type of High altitude balloon) which carries instruments aloft to send back information Temperature and layers The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude the mathematical relationship between temperature and altitude varies among five Radiosondes may operate at a radio frequency of 403 MHz or 1680 MHz and both types may be adjusted slightly higher or lower as required. Radio frequency ( RF) is a Frequency or rate of Oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. A rawinsonde is a radiosonde that is designed to also measure wind speed and direction. Colloquially, rawinsondes are usually referred to as radiosondes.

The radiosonde was invented and launched for the first time by Soviet meteorologist Pavel Molchanov on January 30, 1930. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary Pavel Alexandrovich Molchanov (Павел Александрович Молчанов ( in Volosovo, Imperial Russia Events 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[1][2] Named "271120", it was released 13:44 Moscow Time in Pavlovsk, USSR from the Main Geophysical Observatory and reached a height of 7. Moscow Time (Моско́вское вре́мя is the Time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia and most of western Russia including Saint Petersburg Pavlovsk (Па́вловск is a town situated in Russia, 30 km from and under jurisdiction of Saint Petersburg, just to the south of Tsarskoye Selo The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 8 kilometers measuring temperature there (-40. 7 °C). 32 minutes after the launch radiosonde sent the first aerological message to the Leningrad Weather Bureau and Moscow Central Forecast Institute. ^[3]

Modern radiosondes measure or calculate the following variables:

• Pressure
• Altitude
• Geographical position (Latitude/Longitude)
• Temperature
• Relative humidity
• Wind speed and direction

Less commonly, radiosondes may also measure ozone concentration. Pressure (symbol 'p' is the force per unit Area applied to an object in a direction perpendicular to the surface Altitude is the Elevation of a point or object from a known level or datum (plural data A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the Longitude (ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd or ˈlɒŋgɪˌtjuːd symbolized by the Greek character Lambda (λ is the east-west Geographic coordinate measurement Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature Relative humidity is a measurement of the amount of Water vapor that exists in a gaseous mixture of air and water Wind is the flow of Air or other Gases that compose an Atmosphere (including but not limited to the Earth's) Speed is the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change in position often expressed as Distance d traveled per unit of OZONE is an object oriented Operating system written in the C programming language.

Contents 1 Operation 2 Routine radiosonde launches 3 Uses of upper air observations 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Operation

A rubber or latex balloon filled with either helium or hydrogen lifts the device up through the atmosphere. LaTeX (ˈleɪtɛ Helium ( He) is a colorless odorless tasteless non-toxic Inert Monatomic Chemical Hydrogen (ˈhaɪdrədʒən is the Chemical element with Atomic number 1 Temperature and layers The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude the mathematical relationship between temperature and altitude varies among five The maximum altitude to which the balloon ascends is determined by the diameter and thickness of the balloon. Balloon sizes can range from 150 grams to 3000 grams. As the balloon ascends through the atmosphere, the pressure decreases, causing the balloon to expand. Eventually, the balloon will expand to the extent that its skin will break, terminating the ascent. An 800 gram balloon will burst at about 21 kilometres (69,000 ft). ^[4]

The modern radiosonde communicates via radio with a computer that stores all the variables in real-time. The first rawinsondes were observed from the ground with a theodolite, and gave only a wind estimation by the position. A theodolite ( is an instrument for measuring both horizontal and vertical Angles as used in Triangulation networks Modern radiosondes can use a variety of mechanisms for determining wind speed and direction, such as Loran, radio direction finder, GPS and (in Canada only) Very low frequency. LORAN ( LO ng R ange A id to N avigation is a terrestrial Radio navigation system using Low frequency Radio transmitters A radio direction finder ( RDF) is a device for finding the direction to a Radio source Basic concept of GPS operation A GPS receiver calculates its position by carefully timing the signals sent by the constellation of GPS Satellites high above the Earth Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Very low frequency or VLF refers to radio frequencies (RF in the range of 3 KHz to 30 KHz. The weight of a radiosonde is typically 250 grams. For other uses of the words gram or gramme see Gram (disambiguation. It should also be noted that the average radiosonde is lost and never recovered however for the more expensive instrument packages balloon bourne unmanned gliders (or UAV's) are used to ensure recovery. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV is an unpiloted Aircraft. UAVs can be remote controlled or fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic

Sometimes radiosondes are deployed by being dropped from an aircraft instead of being carried aloft by a balloon. Radiosondes deployed in this way are called dropsondes. Dropsonde is also an album by ambient musician Biosphere. A dropsonde is a Weather reconnaissance device created by the They are most often used in special research projects, such as when it is desired to obtain a profile through a specific feature of a storm.

Routine radiosonde launches

Worldwide there are more than 800 radiosonde launch sites. Most countries share data with the rest of the world through international agreements. Nearly all routine radiosonde launches occur at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC to provide an instantaneous snapshot of the atmosphere. This is especially important for numerical modeling. Numerical weather prediction uses current weather conditions as input into Mathematical models of the atmosphere to predict the weather. In the United States the National Weather Service is tasked with providing timely upper-air observations for use in weather forecasting, severe weather watches and warnings, and atmospheric research. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The National Weather Service ( NWS) once known as the Weather Bureau is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location Severe weather is any destructive weather phenomenon. The term is usually used to refer to severe thunderstorms and related phenomena such as Tornados This article describes the United States National Weather Service (NWS The National Weather Service launches radiosondes from 92 stations in North America and the Pacific Islands twice daily. The Pacific Ocean contains an estimated 20000 to 30000 Islands (the exact number has yet to be precisely determined It also supports the operation of 10 radiosonde sites in the Caribbean. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting

A list of U. S. operated land based launch sites can be found in Appendix C, U. S. Land-based Rawinsode Stations[1] of the Federal Meteorological Handbook #3[2], titled Rawisonde and Pibal Observations, dated May 1997.

Uses of upper air observations

Raw upper air data is routinely ingested by numerical models. Forecasters often view the data in a graphical format, plotted on thermodynamic diagrams such as Skew-T log-P diagrams, Tephigrams, and or Stüve diagrams, all useful for the interpretation of the atmosphere's vertical thermodynamics profile of temperature and moisture as well as kinematics of vertical wind profile. Thermodynamic diagrams are diagrams used by scientists and engineers to represent the Thermodynamic states of a material (typically Fluid) and the consequences of A Skew-T Log-P diagram is one of four Thermodynamic diagrams commonly used in Weather analysis and forecasting A tephigram is one of four Thermodynamic diagrams commonly used in Weather analysis and forecasting A Stüve diagram is one of four Thermodynamic diagrams commonly used in Weather analysis and forecasting In Physics, thermodynamics (from the Greek θερμη therme meaning " Heat " and δυναμις dynamis meaning " Kinematics ( Greek κινειν, kinein, to move is a branch of Classical mechanics which describes the motion of objects without

Radiosonde data is a crucially important component of numerical weather prediction. Numerical weather prediction uses current weather conditions as input into Mathematical models of the atmosphere to predict the weather. Because a sonde may drift several hundred kilometers during the 90 to 120 minute flight, there may be concern that this could introduce problems into the model initialization. However, this appears not to be so except perhaps locally in jet stream regions in the stratosphere [3]. Jet streams are fast flowing relatively narrow air currents found at the Tropopause, the transition between the Troposphere (where temperature decreases

In 1985 the Soviet Venus probes Vega 1 and Vega 2 each dropped a radiosonde into the atmosphere of Venus. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University Vega program were a series of Venus missions which also took advantage of the appearance of Comet Halley in 1986 Vega 2 (along with Vega 1) is a Soviet Space probe part of the Vega program. The sondes could be tracked for two days.

See also

• Atmospheric thermodynamics
• Ceiling balloon
• Global horizontal sounding technique
• Rocketsonde
• Sounding rocket

References

External links

• Upper air data for the world - past and present
• WMO spreadsheet of all Upper Air stations around the world
• Interpreting radiosonde data Tephigrams and Skew-T log P diagrams.
• Radiosonde Sounding System at webmet.com
• NOAA National Weather Service Radiosonde Factsheet

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