[nws-changes] 20130607 ART Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC

• To: nws-changes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [nws-changes] 20130607 ART Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC
• From: Linda Miller <lmiller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:32:15 -0600

-------- Original Message --------

909
NOUS41 KWBC 071426
PNSWSH

Technical Implementation Notice 13-13
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
1025 PM EDT Fri Jun 7 2013

           -Family of Services
           -NOAA Weather Wire Service
           -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
           -NOAAPORT
           Other NWS Partners and Employees

FROM:   Kevin Schrab
   Chief, Observing Services Division
   Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services

SUBJECT:  Three Alaska Sites to Terminate their Automated
          Radiotheodolite Tracking (ART) and Radio Direction
          Finding Radiosondes (RDF) upon Installation of the
          Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) Starting
          August 20, 2013

Three Upper Air (UA) sites in Alaska are scheduled to begin RRS
service in the next four months in 2013.

STATION NAME   WMO #      STN ID    RRS START ON/ABOUT

KOTZEBUE       70133      PAOT      20 Aug 2013
MCGRATH        70316      PAMC      30 Aug 2013
COLD BAY       70350      PACD      24 Sep 2013

These UA sites may be out of service for as long as 10 days. The
NWS UA observations will gather meteorological data from Global
Positioning System (GPS) radiosondes of a new type, the LMS-6.
The assigned equipment code is 48208. The leading 4 indicates a
correction is applied for solar and infrared exposure. The 08
suffix indicates automatic satellite navigation. This code
appears immediately after the heading, 31313, in the TTAA, TTBB,
TTCC and TTDD messages.

The NWS describes the RRS release point location with the
National Geodetic Survey (NGS) OPUS solution. This is a datum
combination that relies on North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83)
for latitude and longitude; the release point elevation is based
on North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88) with the GEOID03
model. By contrast, the GPS radiosonde flight information of
latitude and longitude and altitude will rely on the world
geodetic system of 1984 (WGS84) standard.

Parts of the UA coded messages will be significantly longer with
RRS conversion. NWS has coordinated with its partners on the
longer length of these messages.

The format of the messages will be the same WMO format for coded
UA messages used with the MicroArt legacy system. The number of
levels in the coded messages will be two to three times greater
for the TTBB and TTDD. As a result, the SGL and ABV categories of
AWIPS text products will increase in size. The number of levels
in the TTAA, TTCC, PPBB and PPDD parts will be relatively
unchanged. These changes reflect updated coding practices and
higher resolution level selection criteria. The maximum size
limits of the parts of the coded messages are as follows:

     TTAA:   15 Levels
     TTCC:   10 Levels
     TTBB:  135 Levels
     TTDD:   40 Levels
     PPBB:   40 Levels
     PPDD:   40 Levels

In addition, the 31313 message indicator associated with various
parts of the message will be included with each part of the
thermodynamic message parts.

For additional information on the message requirements, see the
WMO 306 Manual on Codes (International Codes): Volume I.1 Part A,
Alphanumeric Codes, and Volume II Regional Codes and National
Coding Practices. Users can find information on the levels
selection criteria used in NWS coding software online at:

  http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov

If you have questions or feedback, please contact:

  Neal Dipasquale
  NWS Acting Director, Field Systems Operations Center
  Silver Spring, Maryland
  301-713-0039 Ext. 155
  Neal.Dipasquale@xxxxxxxx

NWS National Technical Implementation notices are online:

$$