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BACKGROUND
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This project creates a climatological dataset of mean soundings spanning several years.  Forward calculations (profile to simulated satellite radiance) of HIRS radiances derived from the mean RAOB profiles are performed.  This will allow:
1) for the assessment of trends in the actual RAOB stats to be made (are change points evident in the RAOB profiles that reflect instrument changes over the years?).

2) comparisons to be made between the simulated radiances and the actual radiances measured by HIRS on the various NOAA satellites (NOAA 5-14) for channels 4-8 and 10-12.


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DESCRIPTION OF OUTPUT FILES
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Each year (1978-2000) is separated into its own tarred file.  These directories contain two types of files and the file names have the following format:
6305XXXXXXYYYY. (where 6306 is static, XXXXXX is the CARD # for each global RAOB station, YYYY is the year).  The two types of files are:

1) "*.mean" (e.g. 63050859402000.mean): these files include individual monthly mean soundings for a given year for a given RAOB station.  The files contain:
a] headers in the format:
Station ID (6 digit Card #) <> longitude <> latitude <> YYYYMM <> # of soundings in that month used to make the mean sounding <> mean surface pressure for that month <> mean surface temperature for that month

b] pressure levels (hPa) for each monthly mean sounding (0.1 to 1050; 42 levels total).  These levels are constant for all files.

c] temperature (K) for each pressure level for each monthly mean sounding (42 reports total)

d] mixing ratio (g/kg) for each pressure level for each monthly mean sounding (42 reports total)

*NOTES*
-"-1.000" indicates no temperature or mixing ratio value for the given level. 
-for longitude, degrees west is given as a negative value
-some months have no records and obviously don't appear in the file
 
 
2) "*sat*.csv (e.g. 63050859402000sat12.csv): these files contain the single brightness temperature value for each mean sounding that the HIRS instrument  would have detected given the RAOB sounding profile.  The "csv" files are sorted by satellite (NOAA-4 to 14, depending on the available operational satellites for each given year) and each include HIRS channels 4-8 and 10-12; 8 channels total).  The files contain:
a] headers in the format:
Station ID (6 digit Card #) <> longitude <> latitude <> YYYYMM <> # of soundings in that month used to make the mean sounding and calculate the TB <> satellite # (4-12) <> TB for Ch 4 <>  TB for Ch 5 <>  TB for Ch 6 <>  TB for Ch 7 <>  TB for Ch 8 <>  TB for Ch 10 <>  TB for Ch 11 <>  TB for Ch 12

*NOTES*
-the fields are separated by commas in these files