Title: Upper Air Smart Balloon Data

Contact:

   Steve Businger
   Department of Meteorology
   University of Hawaii
   2525 Correa Road
   Honolulu, HI, USA, 96822
   Telephone: (808) 956-2569
   Facsimile: (808) 956-2877
   E-Mail Address: businger@soest.hawaii.edu

Or
   Mark Geldmeier
   Department of Meteorology
   University of Hawaii
   Honolulu, HI, USA,  96822
   E-Mail Address: markg@soest.hawaii.edu


Data Set Description:

Constant-Level Balloon Data

Constant-level "smart" balloons were used to track air masses during the ACE-1
multi-flight lagrangian missions.  These balloons were launched from the R/V
Discoverer and transmitted position and meteorological data to receiving
equipment on the C-130.  The first lagrangian was aborted after the weather
deteriorated rapidly during the first flight and the aircraft failed to receive
the balloon transmissions.  The next lagrangian mission collected data from
balloon #10 during the first two flights and no transmissions were received
during the third flight.  The final lagrangian consisted of a pre-launch flight
and then three balloon-tracking flights (Flights 24, 25, 26).  Data from
balloons #00, #06, and #08 were received and collected during all three of
these flights.

The position and basic meteorological data received from the balloons during
the two successful lagrangian missions is available in a comma delimited text
file, and as an Excel spreadsheet format.  A list of the fields is included
below. For more information or any questions, contact Steven Businger or Mark
Geldmeier at the University of Hawaii, Meteorology Department.


Format: TAB-delimited ASCII with the data fields:

 1. Date UTC (YYYY/MM/DD)
 2. Time UTC (HH:MM:SS)
 3. GPS latitude in degrees and minutes
 4. GPS longitude in degrees and minutes
 6. GPS altitude (meters)
 7. signal to noise ratio in dBHz
 8. PDOP
 9. number of satellites used for position
10. atmospheric pressure (millibars)
11. tetroon super pressure (millibars)
12. air temperature (C)
13. relative humidity (%)
14. wetness (0=dry, 9=wet)
15. pump run time (seconds)
16. altitude state
17. battery voltage
18. checksum
19. carriage return/linefeed


File Name Conventions:
   MMDDHHmm.dat where MM is the month, DD is the day, HH is the UTC hour,
   and UTC mm is the minute of the start of the data collection.
   An example for 1 December 1995 at 1232 is 12011232.dat.

References: None.