Monday, March 04, 2013

Update On NWS Sonde Replacement



From the NWS El Paso Facebook page - Forecaster Joe Rogash holds one of the new Vaisala RS92 GPS sondes. The NWS is quietly, and gradually, replacing the unreliable Sippican Mark IIA sondes that were part of the original RRS hardware procurement.

Last July the Vaisala sondes went into operational use at Flagstaff, AZ, Caribou, ME, Springfield, MO, and Key West, FL.

At 00 UTC on March 1st, 2013, seven more NWS stations switched to the Vaisala sonde:

El Paso, TX, Morehead City, NC, Gaylord, MI, Medford, OR, San Juan, PR, Guam, and Barrow, AK.

On April 1st eight more stations will changes over to the Vaisala sonde - eventually the early procurement mistakes of RRS will be addressed at all NWS upper-air sounding sites.

An aside, Joe and I first met way back around 1980, when we were both graduate students at Colorado State University.

No comments:

Post a Comment