The system is operated by staff from the German weather service (DWD). Scientific co-use is possible according to prior agreement with AWI Logistics and Principal Investigator of the Polarstern Meteorological Observatory (Holger Schmithüsen). Helium is calculated to supply one 600 gramm balloon per day. If additional radio sonde ascents are planned, the user has to organize the additional sondes, balloons and helium. 

Summary

The radiosonde sounding system gathers meteorological data (pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, position) from a mandatory radiosonde and data from additional sensors like ozonesonde (ozone), cryogenic frostpoint hygrometer (CFH; stratospheric water vapour) and COBALD (aerosol) as well as from ground based sensors (standard humidity chamber, and others)


Manufacturer
Model
Serial No. n/a
Type radiosonde
SENSOR-Link ↪


Contacts

Name Institution Role
Alexander Schulz Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Owner
Holger Deckelmann Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Marion Maturilli Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Principal Investigator, Data Provider, Editor
Ralf Jaiser Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Jürgen Graeser Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Anja Sommerfeld Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Sandro Dahlke Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Benjamin Segger Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider
Markus Rex Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Data Provider

Components

The system consists of a sounding PC, electronic unit "DigiCora", ground check set, GPS antenna, telemtry antenna, Helium filling unit.


Name Model Serial Number SENSOR-
Link
Compact Optical Backscatter Aerosol Detector COBALD n/a ↪
Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer n/a ↪
ECC-6A Ozone Sonde ECC-6A n/a ↪
GRUAN sounding auxiliary sensors n/a ↪
MW41 Receiving System n/a ↪
RS41-SGP Radiosonde RS41-SGP n/a ↪

Position

Infono xyz-position given, antenna located on upper observation deck, receiving station located in A112

Data logging, storage and archiving

Logged parameters

Parameter Sensor Output Type Unit
Atmospheric Temperature temperature K
Relative Humidity relative humidity %
pressure pressure hPa
wind speed wind speed m/s
wind direction wind direction deg

Central geographical ship's position and time standard

Time synchronising is regulated via onboard NTP server.
Geographical ship's position via unit's GPS receiver.

Rawdata storage on board 

Mass data: The data acquisition software creates rawdata on the local drive of the sounding computer and in the mass storage.



|| root directory | data01 ||
|| directory name | CruiseNo \\ e.g. \\ ANT25_3 ||
|| file name | DBLK_YYYYMMDD_hhmmss.mwx || 
|| Data volume (MB per day) ca | 16 or 32 || 
|| Number of files per day ca | 1 or 2 ||

Data archiving on land 

After the cruise, the operator transfers the measurement data along with required meta data to AWI. After consultation with the data scientist and AWI Logistics they are uploaded to the PANGAEA repository. Then, the data (including meta data) can be extracted from https://www.pangaea.de/ (for authorized users only).


|| File format(s) | *.txt || 
|| Calibration certificates | NO ||

Documentation