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NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION MESSAGE 94-07
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS
255 PM EST FRI MAR 28 1994
TO: ALL USERS OF NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (NWS)
UPPER AIR DATA
FROM: ELBERT W. FRIDAY, JR.
DIRECTOR, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
SUBJECT: NWS IMPLEMENTATION OF VAISALA RADIOSONDES
(THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED BY CARL BOWER OF THE
OBSERVING SYSTEMS BRANCH)
Vaisala, Incorporated, has been awarded a one-year contract to
provide radiosondes to the National Weather Service (NWS) for 26
upper air sites. Each NWS Region will use Vaisala radiosondes at
some stations with the greatest usage in the Alaska and Pacific
Regions. Appropriate software required to use the Vaisala
radiosondes with the NWS ground equipment is undergoing testing
at the NWS test facility at Sterling, Virginia, and is expected
to be completed in April 1994. The tests at Sterling will be
followed with tests at selected NWS field locations prior to
operational implementation. Our current estimate on the initial
implementation of Vaisala radiosondes is late spring to early
summer of 1994.
The previous NWS policy not to correct radiosonde data
transmitted over the Global Telecommunication System and archive
data provided to the National Climatic Data Center is being
changed with the operational implementation of the Vaisala
radiosonde. Radiation corrections will be made to data from the
Vaisala radiosondes as is the common practice with other
countries using this radiosonde type. Data transmitted from the
remaining 69 NWS VIZ upper air sites will continue to be
uncorrected. Plans are being formulated to make the
necessary system changes to transmit corrected data for all
radiosondes within the next two to four years.
The NWS will provide 60 days advance notification on the
scheduled operational implementation dates of the Vaisala
radiosonde for each location. Operational phaseovers will occur
at the beginning of a month and will require several months to
complete for the entire network. We will also provide the dates
of other network changes required to phase out the Orbital
Sciences Corporation, Space Data Division, radiosondes and any
necessary realignments of the VIZ sites.
Questions on data corrections and network configuration should be
referred to Carl Bower, W/OSO14, (301) 713-0722.
END
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