New Upper Air Equipment
Installed at NWS Albuquerque - Testing is Complete
Upper
air soundings for Albuquerque are available starting May 5, 2008.
Upper air observations are obtained using weather balloons
that lift instrument packages called radiosondes up through the atmosphere.
For many years, observations have been obtained using
a set of instruments that can directly measure pressure, temperature and humidity, and gather
wind information by tracking the position of the balloon at specific altitudes.
Radiosondes are launched twice each day at nearly 100 sites in the United States,
including Albuquerque, and around 1000 locations across the globe.
These data are used to determine the state of the atmosphere and also to provide
input essential to running sophisticated computer forecast models.
Equipment used to track the radiosondes is housed in the building shown in the photo below.
During the week of April 29th, equipment used to track the
radiosondes was replaced with a new tracking system. The equipment removed
from our upper air dome was 1950's
vintage.
The dome of our upper air building houses our tracking system. A key
component of the system is a receiver antenna, with the old antenna shown
front and back.
A crane was used to remove the old antenna and lift the new antenna of
the Radiosonde Replacement System, or RRS, into the dome.
The antenna of the new RRS system has a greater vertical and horizontal
range. With the old system, tracking a balloon that was directly overhead
was not possible. The RRS antenna will track overhead with ease.
The antenna locks onto the signal emitted from the
radiosonde and then tracks the radiosonde as it ascends. Atmospheric
data transmitted from the radiosonde is received by the antenna.
New radiosondes will be used with the RRS system. The instrument package
is smaller than the radiosonde previously used. While pressure, temperature,
humidity and winds are measured by both instruments, the use of GPS in
the RRS system produces atmospheric soundings with a higher vertical resolution,
resulting in
more accurate and
complete
wind, temperature and relative humidity profiles.
Within a day of installation of the new RRS system, test flights were
being conducted and measurements were being received. Testing will continued
through May 2. Official soundings with the new RRS equipment started on
May 5, 2008.
Over the past three years, the National Weather Service has
been replacing the old ground systems and associated radiosondes
with
new GPS-based Radiosonde Replacement Systems.
The first
GPS-based radiosonde system was installed in Sterling,
VA, in August of 2005.
National Weather Service
Albuquerque Weather Forecast Office
2341 Clark Carr LP SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Ph: 505.243.0702
Web Master's Email: ABQ Webmaster
Page Author: WFO Albuquerque, NM
Date modified:
www.srh.weather.gov 
National
Weather Service Weather Forecast Office
