TWP/SMET/C2 - RH Sensor bad at Nauru

RH sensor bad from 16 Dec 2001 03 GMT to 3 Jan 2002

• Mean Relative Humidity(relh_mean)
• Relative humidity maximum(relh_max)
• Std Dev of Relative Humidity or Hardware Error Code(relh_sd)
• Relative humidity minimum(relh_min)

• Relative humidity minimum(relh_min)
• Std Dev of Relative Humidity or Hardware Error Code(relh_sd)
• Mean Relative Humidity(relh_mean)
• Relative humidity maximum(relh_max)

TWP/SONDE/C2  - Broken Temperature Sensor

The temperature sensors on these radiosondes broke at launch.  All
the temperature-related data are incorrect.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)

• Surface dew point temperature(dp)
• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)

TWP/SMET/C2 - Temperature Sensor Failed, Data Missing

The T/RH sensor on Nauru failed and was replaced (only the temperature sensor failed).

• Mean Air Temperature or Hardware Error(temp_mean)
• Std Dev of Air Temperature(temp_sd)
• Temperature minimum(temp_min)
• Temperature maximum(temp_max)

• Temperature maximum(temp_max)
• Mean Air Temperature or Hardware Error(temp_mean)
• Std Dev of Air Temperature(temp_sd)
• Temperature minimum(temp_min)

TWP/SONDE/C2 - Bad RH Data (AIRS Validation Sonde)

The RH sensor heating circuit failed on this sonde.  This results in
oscillation of reported RH between reasonable values and values near zero.
This was an AIRS validation sounding.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)

• Surface dew point temperature(dp)
• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)

TWP/SMET/C2 -  WIND SENSOR #1 (HIGHER) INOPERATIVE

Wind speed sensor #1 (higher sensor) failed.  Wind speeds were reported as 0 m/s and wind 
direction data was not in agreement with wind sensor #2. Anemometer was replaced.

• Wind #1 direction standard deviation(wind1_dir_sd)
• Wind #1 speed minimum(wind1_spd_min)
• Wind #1 speed maximum(wind1_spd_max)
• Wind #1 direction vector average(wind1_dir_vec_avg)
• Wind #1 speed standard deviation(wind1_spd_sd)
• Wind #1 speed maximum gust(wind1_spd_max_gust)
• Wind #1 speed arithmetic average(wind1_spd_arith_avg)
• Wind #1 speed vector average(wind1_spd_vec_avg)

TWP/SONDE/C2  - Failure of RH sensor

It appears that the RH sensor heating circuit failed during this sounding.  The RH 
oscillates rapidly between low (~0 %RH) and not so low (ambient %RH) and the oscillation seems 
to stop when the temperature is below ~35 degC.  According to Vaisala these are symptoms 
of failure in the ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) that controls the heating.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)

• Surface dew point temperature(dp)
• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)

TWP/SONDE/C2 - Strange problem with data -

This is very strange.  The data has what appears to be a pressure jump at launch (from 
1007.2 to 956.5 hPa) but the sounding temperature and RH data clearly look to be 
interpolated between the surface and tropopause.  By examining the absolutely raw data, I found that 
the system assigned an elapsed time of 408 seconds (since system start up) to the launch 
point, but there is no raw data between 410 and 532 seconds.  The raw pressure value at 
410 seconds is 1007.6 hPa and that at 532 seconds is 40.9 hPa!  Unless this sounding was 
done by using a rocket-powered balloon (maybe even then), it would be impossible for the 
sonde to get to 40.9 hPa in 2 minutes.  Because the apparent gap is only two minutes, the 
system was able to interpolate but is not sophisticated enough to understand that the 
limits of the interpolation are unreasonable.

I can't imagine what went wrong - I've not seen anything like this before.

• null(Raw data stream - documentation not supported)

• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Ascent Rate(asc)
• lon(lon)
• lat(lat)
• Wind Status(wstat)
• Mean Wind Speed(wspd)
• V-component(v_wind)
• Retrieved pressure profile(pres)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)
• base time(base_time)
• U-component(u_wind)
• Wind Direction(deg)
• Dummy altitude for Zeb(alt)

• null(Raw data stream - documentation not supported)

TWP/SONDE/C2 - RH sensor bad

It appears that the RH sensor heating circuits failed during these
soundings.  The RH oscillates rapidly between low (~0 %RH) and not
so low (ambient %RH) and the oscillation seems to stop when the
temperature is below ~35 degC.  According to Vaisala these are
symptoms of failure in the ASIC (application specific integrated
circuit) that controls the heating.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)

TWP/SONDE/C2 - Broken temperature sensors

The temperature sensors on these radiosondes broke after launch.  All
temperature-related data are incorrect.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Dry bulb temperature(tdry)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)

TWP/SMET/C2 - Negative rainfall rates

Due to limitations of the Zeno dataloggers all voltage measurements
from the optical rain gauge (ORG) were converted to rainfall rates. 
This resulted in negative values for rain rates.  Any value below
0.10 mm/hr should be considered to be 0 mm/hr.  New dataloggers 
alleviated this problem.

• Precipitation maximum(precip_max)
• Precipitation mean(precip_mean)
• precipitation minimum(precip_min)
• Precipitation standard deviation(precip_sd)

TWP/MWR/C2 - Reprocessed: Revised Retrieval Coefficients

IN THE BEGINNING (June 1992), the retrieval coefficients used to derive the precipitable 
water vapor (PWV) and liquid water path (LWP) from the MWR brightness temperatures were 
based on the Liebe and Layton (1987) water vapor and oxygen absorption model and the Grant 
(1957) liquid water absorption model.

Following the SHEBA experience, revised retrievals based on the more recent Rosenkranz 
(1998) water vapor and oxygen absorption models and the Liebe (1991) liquid waer absorption 
model were developed.  The Rosenkranz water vapor absorption model resulted a 2 percent 
increase in PWV relative to the earlier Liebe and Layton model.  The Liebe liquid water 
absorption model decreased the LWP by 10% relative to the Grant model.  However, the 
increased oxygen absorption caused a 0.02-0.03 mm (20-30 g/m2) reduction in LWP, which was 
particularly significant for low LWP conditions (i.e. thin clouds encountered at SHEBA).

Recently, it has been shown (Liljegren, Boukabara, Cady-Pereira, and Clough, TGARS v. 43, 
pp 1102-1108, 2005) that the half-width of the 22 GHz water vapor line from the HITRAN 
compilation, which is 5 percent smaller than the Liebe and Dillon (1969) half-width used in 
Rosenkranz (1998), provided a better fit to the microwave brightness temperature 
measurements at 5 frequencies in the range 22-30 GHz, and yielded more accurate retrievals. 
Accordingly, revised MWR retrieval coefficients have been developed using MONORTM, which 
utilizes the HITRAN compilation for its spectroscopic parameters.  These new retrievals 
provide 3 percent less PWV and 2.6 percent greater LWP than the previous 
retrievals based on Rosenkranz (1998).

The Rosenkranz-based retrieval coefficients became active at TWP.C2 20020427.0600.  The 
MONORTM-based retrieval coefficients became active at TWP.C2 20050630.2100.

Note: The TWP.C2 data for 19981028-20050630 have been reprocessed to apply the 
MONORTM-based retrievals for all time.  The reprocessed data were archived 20061003.

• MWR column precipitable water vapor(vap)
• Averaged total liquid water along LOS path(liq)

• Ensemble average for MWR liquid in window centered about balloon release(mean_liq_mwr)
• Ensemble average for MWR vapor in window centered about balloon release(mean_vap_mwr)

• Averaged total liquid water along LOS path(liq)
• MWR column precipitable water vapor(vap)

TWP/MWR/C2 - New software version (4.15) installed

A problem began with the installation of MWR.EXE version 4.12 in November 2002. The 
software had been upgraded from a "DOS" to a "Windows"-compiled program to address an earlier 
problem.  The software upgrade corrected the earlier problem but introduced a new one that 
caused line-of-sight observing cycles to be skipped, a 15% reduction in the number of 
tip curves, and saturation of CPU usage.  Software versions 4.13 and 4.14 also produced 
these problems.

The new MWR software version (4.15) was installed on 9/15/2005. As a consequence of this 
upgrade, the tip curve frequency increased. The tip cycle time decreased from ~60s to ~50s.

• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Sky brightness temperature at 23.8 GHz(tbsky23)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody(bb31)
• MWR column precipitable water vapor(vap)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• (tknd)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• IR Brightness Temperature(ir_temp)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 31.4 GHz blac2body+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• Sky Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Sky brightness temperature at 31.4 GHz(tbsky31)
• Averaged total liquid water along LOS path(liq)

• 31.4 GHz sky signal(tipsky31)
• (tknd)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz derived from this tip(tnd31I)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• 31.4 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r31)
• 23.8 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(tipsky23)
• 31.4 GHz blac2body+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody(bb31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz derived from this tip(tnd23I)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)

TWP/SMET/C2 - Reprocess: Barometric Data Changed from hPa to kPa

Barometric pressure data was converted from hPa to kPa in order to standardize the 
measurement units among ARM sites and to conform to accepted standard units determined by the 
scientific community.

• Barometric Pressure(atmos_pressure)

TWP/SMET/C2 - Reprocess: Tipping bucket rain gauge added

A tipping bucket rain gauge was added to the TWP.C2 SMET suite of instruments on 20061129. 
Effective 20060926, two new variables (count and rain amount) were added to the end of 
the twpsmet60sC2.b1 datastream.  Between 9/26 and 11/29, the data for these two variables 
are filled with zeros.  Users should not use the data during this period as the zeros are 
not representative of the rain fall at the site.  When reprocessing of this datastream 
occurs these variables will be added for the 19981021-20060926 and data from 
19981021-20061129 will be filled with -9999 (missing).

• base time(base_time)

TWP/MWR/C2 - Missing Data

Data are missing and unrecoverable.

• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• lat(lat)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• lon(lon)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Sky brightness temperature at 23.8 GHz(tbsky23)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody(bb31)
• MWR column precipitable water vapor(vap)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• (tknd)
• Actual Azimuth(actaz)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• IR Brightness Temperature(ir_temp)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Actual elevation angle(actel)
• base time(base_time)
• Dummy altitude for Zeb(alt)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 31.4 GHz blac2body+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• Sky Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Sky brightness temperature at 31.4 GHz(tbsky31)
• Averaged total liquid water along LOS path(liq)

TWP/SONDE/C2 - Failure of RH sensor

The RH sensor ASIC that controls the sensor heating failed.  As a result the RH at the 
beginning of the sounding oscillates between near-zero and ambient values.  The RH heating 
cycle stops when the ambient temperature reaches below -30 degC; above this level RH 
values should be valid.

• Relative humidity inside the instrument enclosure(rh)
• Surface dew point temperature(dp)