Twenty five years of NCAR Dropsondes in Service to Science and Operations.

NCAR Day of Networking and Discovery April 28, 2017

In-situ Sensing Facility Earth Observing Laboratory Boulder, CO, USA NCAR AVAPS ® Dropsonde Team Terry Hock Holger Vömel, Nick Potts, Charlie Martin, Kate Young, Mack Goodstein, Clayton Arendt, Laura Tudor, Dean Lauristsen

© 2017 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 1 What the Heck is a Dropsonde

Radiosonde Dropsonde Ejected from Aircraft “Targeted Observation”

~ 11 m/s

Small Weather station Rises on balloon to 20-30 km altitude Pressure sensor & Measures continually –Pressure GPS rcvr - Winds • Temperature Temperature • Humidity & RH Sensors • Winds High Vertical Resolution -Thermodynamic & Wind Profile 2 Air Flow Dropsonde Atmospheric Profile

October 7, 2016

Legend Wind Speed Humidity Temperature Vertical Velocity

NASA Global Hawk UAS Hurricane Mathew 3 NCAR GPS Dropsonde ( Mini & Standard)

Performance Specs for both dropsondes Fall speed ~11 m/s at sea surface Fall Time: ~15 Min from 45K ft. PTU Measurement rate: 0.5 sec Wind measurement rate: 0.25 sec

Nominal Sensor Characteristics (Vaisala RSS-901 PTU module) Range Repeatability Resolution Pressure 1080- 10 hPa ± 0.5 hPa 0.1 hPa

Temperature -90° to +60° C ± 0.2 C 0.1 C

Humidity 1-100% ± 5 % 1.1%

Wind Speed 0-200 m/s ± 0.5 m/s 0.1 m/s

Mass Size Features Mini Dropsonde 165 g (< 6oz.) 12” x 1.75” Automatic Launchers or manual

AVAPS II - RD-94 320 grams 16” x 2.75” Manual Launchers 4 Dropsonde release from NOAA Twin Otter

Image by courtesy of Jeff Smith, NOAA/AOC NCAR Dropsonde History

1970’s NCAR Develops Omega Drop Windsonde (ODW) GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) 1974 The ODW was used successfully during the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE). The resolution was fairly course, and wind finding did not work in clouds or rain. It did provide the first reliable wind soundings in the oceanic environment.

Air Force C-130 Hurricane Hunters adopts the NCAR ODW Dropsonde to support National Hurricane Center (NHC) hurricane reconnaissance missions.

1980’s NCAR Develops Cross-Chain LORAN Dropsonde System Experiment on Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic (ERICA)

6 1994 Development of New Generation Dropsonde based upon GPS Technology

Future New NSF/NCAR HIAPER Research Aircraft

All organizations need a next generation Dropsonde System 1994 3-way Collaboration

Grobe Strato 2C NOAA/AOC Gulfstream IV

7 NCAR- NOAA Partnership

NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) NOAA/AOC Tropical Storm Missions NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HRD) NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) 2016 50 missions 829 Sondes NOAA Earth Systems Research Lab (ESRL) 2015 30 missions 570 Sondes NOAA/AOC Supports w/Dropsondes 2014 43 missions 801 Sondes • Hurricane Missions 2013 17 missions 348 Sondes • Ocean Winds satellite verification 2012 32 missions 761 sondes • Arctic Heat 2011 37 missions 932 sondes

Total GPS Dropsondes released 29,485 2010 50 missions 1050 sondes 2009 25 missions 567 sondes NOAA/AOC P-3’s & Gulfstream IV 2008 73 missions 1488 sondes P-3 Dropsonde Operator 2007 23 missions 368 sondes 2006 13 missions 482 sondes 2005 97 missions 2229 sondes

8 NCAR - NASA Partnership

NASA Aircraft with NCAR Dropsonde Systems DC-8 Traditional Manned ER-2 Pod System Global Hawk UAS Ground

NCAR Supported NASA Field Campaigns DC-8 ER-2 Global Hawk 1996 TCM 2001 Camex-4 2010 WISPAR 2001 Camex-4 2000 Crystal-FACE 2012-2014 HS3 2006 NAMMA 2015-2016 SHOUT 2007 TC4 2017 EPOCH 2010 GRIP 2015 OLYMPEX 9 WISPAR Air Force WC-130H Hurricane Hunters 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron

Out with the old H Model 2005

In with the new J Model 10 WC-130H Aircraft! Fly Hurricane reconnaissance for NOAA National Hurricane Center

Based at Keelser Air Force Base Biloxi, MS

International & Other Dropsonde Users

United Kingdom Taiwan Germany Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) National Taiwan University DLR Oberpfaffenhofen UK Met Office

Astra G-100 Jet BAe-146

Falcon 20

Dropwindsonde Observations for Typhoon Surveillance near the Halo Gulstream -550 Taiwan Region (DOTSTAR) Other Users Typhoon surveillance AES (CANADA) Started in 2003 AWI (Germany) DAS/Polar Research (Japan) Targeted Field Observations Safire/Meteo France 2007 Convective & Orographically- CMA (China) induced Precipitation Study (COPS) HKO (Hong Kong) 2008 THORPEX IPY 2008 T-PARC CIRPAS (USA) ARETE (USA) MIT (USA 11 AVAPS® Dropsonde Field Programs 2011 – 2016 Automatic Launchers

NSF/NCAR G-V Test Flights: February - March 2013 6 Test Flights NASA Global Hawk UAS 61 Dropsonde released NOAA WISPAR: February – March 2011 3 Flights MPEX: May – June 2013 94 Dropsondes released 15 Flights 426 Dropsonde released NASA HS3 ( 4 year Hurricane program) August – Sept of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 DEEPWAVE: June – July 2014 26 Flights 26 Flights 1505 Dropsondes released 282 Dropsonde released NOAA SHOUT ( 3 field deployments) CSET: July – August 2015 August 2015 to October 2016 16 Flights 16 Flights 120 Dropsonde released 839 Dropsondes released

3,3273,327 Mini MiniDropsondes Dropsondes deployed released from AVAPS from AutomaticAutomatic Launchers Launchers 12

Field Program Flight tracks and Drop locations

NSF/NCAR G-V MPEX RF15 34 Drops NASA Global Hawk NOAA SHOUT Hurricane Mathew

NASA Global Hawk HS3 Flight 7 Hurricane NASA Global Hawk NOAASHOUT Edouard Cat 3 Sept 16, 2014 Hurricane Gaston RF01 Dropsonde In the Literature & Technology Transfer

1997 UCARF Technology Transfer of NCAR Dropsonde Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Technology under license Vol. 80, No. 3, March 1999 to Vaisala Inc. U.S.

Paper has been cited over 100 times. A search of AMS journals shows 360 papers that use NCAR GPS dropsonde data.

14 2000

Black- Actual Track

15 2000

Black- Actual Track

16 Dropsonde Impacts

Most significant Impact at 48Hr for track forecast.

DROPSONDE DATA CAN HELP BETTER INTERPRET FLIGHT- LEVEL WIND OBSERVATIONS.

NOAA/AOC G-IV and P-3 Drops Courtesy James Franklin NOAA/HRD 17 NCAR/NSF Field Projects

18 NOAA Dropsondes into Hurricanes 1996-2007

Roughly 20,000 dropsondes were deployed for NOAA hurricane reconnaissance program

Maps courtesy June Wang

19 THORPEX-Pacific Asian Regional Campaign 2008 (T-PARC 2008)

Dropsonde Deployed NRL-P3 = 475 AF-C130 = 630 DLR-Falcon = 338 DOTSTAR= 162 Driftsonde = 268 Dropsondes - Multiple Platforms – High Resolution Thermodynamic & Wind Profiles

AVAPS Dropsonde System is requestable NSF Lower Atmospheric Observing Facility (LAOF)

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 21 Thank your for your attention

Questions

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