Raw Dropwindsonde Observations in AVAPS Format

NCAR's Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS) outputs the data received from a dropsonde in a standardized ASCII format. Each file begins with an identifying code for the sonde, the date and time the sonde was baselined. There follows several lines of headers identifying each column parameter, units, and format. Each line of data will contain the sonde ID, date and time of the meteorological observations, as well as the latitude, longitude, and altitude as determined by the sonde's GPS navigation chip. The usual time interval between observations is one half second.

For more information please click here.

Example

AVAPS-T01 STA 054046109 060611 223835.22
AVAPS-T01 COM            UTC     UTC       Air    Air     Rel   Wind   Wind   Vert      GPS        GPS     Geopoten GPS  Sonde  Sonde GPS Wind    GPS   
AVAPS-T01 COM   Sonde    Date    Time     Press   Temp   Humid  Dir    Spd    Veloc  Longitude   Latitude  Altitude Wnd   RH1    RH2  Snd Error Altitude
AVAPS-T01 COM    ID     yymmdd hhmmss.ss   (mb)  (degC)   (%)   (deg)  (m/s)  (m/s)    (deg)       (deg)      (m)   Sat   (%)    (%)  Sat (m/s)    (m)  
AVAPS-T01 COM --------- ------ --------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----------- ---------- -------- --- ------ ------ --- ----- --------
AVAPS-D01 S01 054046109 060611 223958.56  511.03  -2.82   2.41 999.00 999.00  99.00  999.000000  99.000000  5717.26   0   2.41   2.05   0 99.00 99999.00
AVAPS-D01 S01 054046109 060611 223959.06  511.47  -2.82   2.30 999.00 999.00  99.00  999.000000  99.000000  5710.42   0   2.30   1.95   0 99.00 99999.00
AVAPS-D01 S01 054046109 060611 223959.56  511.99  -2.86   2.19 999.00 999.00  99.00  999.000000  99.000000  5702.28   0   2.19   1.95   0 99.00 99999.00
AVAPS-D01 S01 054046109 060611 224000.06  512.52  -2.88   2.20 999.00 999.00  99.00  999.000000  99.000000  5694.19   0   2.20   1.85   0 99.00 99999.00
AVAPS-D01 S01 054046109 060611 224000.56  513.00  -2.88   2.20 999.00 999.00  99.00  999.000000  99.000000  5686.74   0   2.20   1.96   0 99.00 99999.00

Please contact Sim Aberson or Mike Black if you have any questions about AVAPS format.

Last modified: 24 March 2008.
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