RAIII Radiosonde Training Workshop Buenos Aires May 2006

RAIII Radiosonde Training Workshop, Buenos Aires, May 2006 J. Nash, R. Smout, M. Smees Met Office, Exeter, UK And M. J. Garcia Servicio Meteorologico Nacional, Argentina TECO – 2006, Geneva , December 2006 © Crown copyright 2004 Page 1

Outline § Background to Upper Air Training Workshops § Conduct of Workshop § Practical

Background § Regional Training Workshops for radiosonde initiated in Region 1 in 2003, in Botswana § initially as a response for additional training to cope with the problems experienced with GPS radiosonde systems § Lectures prepared mainly by UK staff, but also some contribution from USA and members of HMEI § Lectures translated into French and used at a second training workshop for French speaking countries in Morocco, 2003 § Lectures updated by UK in 2006 and translated into Spanish in Argentina by M. Garcia. © Crown copyright 2004 Page 3

Dave Drew teaching in Botswana , 2003 Dave Drew died suddenly about 6 weeks

Participants in Region III Workshop § Argentina § Bolivia § Brazil § Chile § Colombia § Ecuador § Paraguay § Peru § Surinam § Uruguay © Crown copyright 2004 mature network regenerating measurements mature network some stations functioning attempt to establish station some stations functioning regular observations no measurements Page 5

Satellite cloud observation in the infrared with the radiosonde stations active at 12 UTC

Satellite cloud observation in the infrared with the radiosonde stations active at 00 UTC

Lecturers in Argentina § J. Nash , R. Smout and M. Smees UK § A. Vega USA § HMEI representatives: Introducing new Technology and discussions on interoperability of systems and suitability of systems for use in Region III § F. Clowney § R. Pepin § A. Kajava © Crown copyright 2004 Intermet MODEM Vaisala Page 8

Conduct of Workshop § Workshop held from 8 -12 May 2006 in the HQ of Servicio Meteorologico Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina with practical at the Regional Instrument Centre, Buenos Aires § Using the facilities made available by Comodoro Miguelo Rabiolo § Powerpoints were mostly in Spanish, with English lecturers translated simultaneously into Spanish § All participants were given a copy of the lecture materials plus other information on a CD at the end of the workshop § None of the national participants had met before § Useful discussions on many issues and the participants made good reports on the achievements and practical problems experienced in the various national networks © Crown copyright 2004 Page 9

Examples of information in Workshop lectures § Monitoring of geopotential heights § Looking for

ECMWF monitoring for 100 h. Pa and 30 h. Pa, 2005 Country Station No. S. D. [OBFG] [m] 100 h. Pa night 30 h. Pa night San Andres 80001 Colombia 80035 Colombia 35 S. D. [OBFG] [m] 100 h. Pa day S. D. [OBFG] [m] [OB-FG] [m] 30 h. Pa day 100 h. Pa night 30 h. Pa night 100 h. Pa day 30 h. Pa day xxx 26 36 41 24 80222 13 Colombia 80398 French Guiana 81405 xxx 58 55 17 37 23 15 38 22 27 29 54 19 36 38 47 Brazil 82022 24 25 17 23 Brazil 82099 16 23 14 30 Brazil 82193 9 11 24 20 32 54 Brazil 82281 33 31 37 2 Brazil 82332 16 17 32 31 Brazil 82397 22 27 Brazil 82599 10 35 Brazil 82678 20 32 Brazil 82765 15 21 Brazil 82824 18 20 Brazil 82900 12 22 Brazil 82917 25 30 Brazil 82965 16 20 19 28 13 xxx 17 12 20 14 4 27 © Crown copyright 2004 10 34 18 24 35 xxx 24 59 15 22 9 17 14 25 38 59 11 24 39 45 36 18 15 No measurement No data reported above 100 h. Pa Anomalous s. d. Anomalous positive bias at 100 h. Pa xxx 9 17 20 24 9 19 6 27 Anomalous positive bias increment from 100 to 30 h. Pa Page 13

In one flight , nearly all the winds were interpolated and this gave a clearly spurious wind profile at most levels in the ascent. Faulty measurement Managers need to ensures that anomalies arising from inadequate interpolation are not reported a s valid winds. What do you do to check? © Crown copyright 2004 Page 14

Comments from Argentina on the usefulness of the workshop § Very useful for all Argentine participants Reasons for high quality measurements in the troposphere The need for GUAN stations to remain in full operation § Lectures were very comprehensive – with clarification of many difficulties in specific upper air tasks § New technology available was comprehensively reviewed § Status of observations in Region III clearly presented and useful suggestions as to how to achieve the best results in future § Presentations by other national participants were extremely useful and provoked good discussions about how to deal with practical problems § Need a mechanism to maintain dialogues after the end of the Workshop. © Crown copyright 2004 Page 15

Follow-on issues § In some countries in Region III there have been serious health and safety problems associated with hydrogen generation- It was suggested that theses issue should be addressed in more detail in future workshops § In Aregentina the upgrade of Digi. Cora II to use Vaisala RS 92 SGP radiosondes was successfully achieved by August 2006. In this programme, the experience gained in the workshop proved useful. § Plans are being made to train radiosonde observers in Argentina, using material derived from the lectures and documents of the workshop. © Crown copyright 2004 Page 16

Practical work © Crown copyright 2004 Page 17

Contents of practical work § Day 1 Participants given a chance to prepare and use all the different types of radiosonde system made available by HMEI members and the UK. Radiosonde comparison test procedures were demonstrated § Day 2 A comparison flight between four different radiosonde types was prepared and launched solely by the participants © Crown copyright 2004 Page 18

Discussions during processing of radiosonde measurements © Crown copyright 2004 Page 19

Discussing the use of new technology © Crown copyright 2004 Page 20

Radiosonde test flight launched from RIC, Buenos Aires © Crown copyright 2004 Page 21

Temperature and relative humidity compared as a function of height, Vaisala RS 80 as

Temperature and relative humidity compared as a function of height, Vaisala RS 80 ventilated

Recommendations for the future § Training workshops should be considered for Region II or Region V, given the success of training in Region III § Although training material was initially intended for managers, actions should be taken to develop better training material for the radiosonde operators § In large national networks it is probable that training material is also required for young scientists who may be required to support network operations from time to time. This type of material might need to be developed for training in Region II § Actions should be taken by CIMO to encourage the circulation of experience and advice between the radiosonde operators in each region. Traditionally this does not occur, and there is likely to be unnecessary duplication of effort in resolving operational problems. © Crown copyright 2004 Page 24

Acknowledgments § Javier Pacheco RIC Technical Support § Ricardo Pedraza § Julio Goffredi Radiosonde Station Inspector § Stella Bigalli § Miriam Andrioli International Affairs Office § Miroslav Ondras WWW Department © Crown copyright 2004 Page 25