Radiosonde launches start Monday

On Friday, Timothy Lim from NCAR taught CU grad students radiosonde launching procedures. Sondes will be launched nominally at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm local time (1400, 1800, 2200, and 0200+1 UTC) from the BAO Visitor's Center from March 9 - 18. Ascent rate is ~ 5 m/s to allow for detailed profiles in the boundary layer for comparison to lidars (and tower sonics), and we will attempt to keep track of the sounds up to 250 hPa to allow for comparisons with the radiometer temperature and moisture profiles.

Exceptions to this schedule due to educational outreach activities will occur on March 9 (1400, 1800 UTC soundings) and March 17 (1800 soundings). 

The two soundings on Friday were short due to time constraints, but their data appear below (output using ASPEN software). Winds were very light, but it was interesting to see the direction shift from northeasterly near the surface to southwesterly aloft. For the second sounding, around 11:47 MST (1847 UTC), we estimated boundary-layer height to be ~ 500m (based on the humidity gradient).

Skew-T for first launch

Skew-T for second launch

T, RH vs altitude for second launch - inversion at 2700 m