Table of Contents

Graw Radiosonde

Radiosondes can be launch on free floating or tether balloons. There are several launch locations including outside of Clifford Hall, UND Atmospheric Science Glacial Ridge field site, and Ray Richards Golf course.

Documentation related to instruments and data at the department's Glacial Ridge field site http://glacialridge.atmos.und.edu/. The site phone number is 218 637-2346. Rain gauge data around Glacialridge is available from the USGS

In 2020, Kyle Myers is the Facilities Manager at the Ray Richards Golf course. The department has access to a Tethered Balloon System from the Space Studies department.

Hook Up Graw Radiosonde Equipment To a Computer

This assumes that the computer being used has Grawmet 5.10 installed.

  1. Ensure that the computer is connected to the Internet before being powered off. The groundstation uses an IP address to sync with the computer, so if the computer is not connected to the Internet when the groundstation is powered on, things will severely break.
  1. Hook up all equipment BEFORE turning anything on. Leave the computer and groundstation powered off until everything is hooked up.
  2. If using a mobile hotspot, TURN ON THE MOBILE HOTSPOT BEFORE TURNING ON THE COMPUTER.
  3. Turn on the computer and log in.
  4. Once the computer comes on, wait for a minute and turn on the groundstation.
  5. Wait another minute and then start Grawmet.

Disconnecting the Graw Radiosonde Equipment From a Computer

  1. Exit Grawmet
  2. Ensure that the computer is still connected to the Internet before the computer is completely powered down.
  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Power off the groundstation.
  3. Disconnect all equipment.

Save Graw Sounding Data

There are two options to save the sounding data: the profile data table and the RTS table. For simplicity, it is good to save the data right after the launch, but it can be reloaded later on and saved later.

Profile Data Table

Once the sounding or sounding simulation is complete, click on the “Visualization” tab and click “Profile Data Table” button on the upper left portion of the Grawmet window. A table should appear with time, pressure, and temperature, as well as some other data. Click on the small button on the top left corner of the window that says “Save Active Diagram”. as a text file in /nas/Radiosonde/YYMMDD, with YYMMDD being a directory to hold the sounding data and images. If the folder does not exist, make one. The file name must be in this format:

“ProfileDataTable_YYMMDD.txt”

where YYMMDD is the year/month/day of the launch.

RTS Table

The RTS table is the format that can be read in RAOB. To save this table, click on the “Visualization” tab again. To the left of the Profile Data Table button, there should be a small box that contains an “XData” button. The arrows on the right side of the box allow you to browse through many diagrams and tables. Scroll through until you find the “RTS” button and click it. As with the Profile Data Table, click on the “Save Active Diagram” button. Save the RTS table as a text file in /nas/Radiosonde/YYMMDD with the format:

“YYMMDD_HHMMSS_GFK_GRAW.txt”

where YYMMDD is the year/month/day of the launch, HHMMSS is the hours, minutes, and seconds of the launch start time (this can be found from finding the raw data file in /Grawmet5/Data/), and the 3-character location is the identifier for the nearest station (GFK for most soundings).

Viewing Radiosonde Data in RAOB

RAOB

RAOB 6.5 is compatible with the RTS tables. In the old version of Grawmet, the Profile Data Table contained the data that is now in the RTS table. As a result, old Profile Data Tables are readable in RAOB, but not the newer ones. Now, only RTS tables are readable. To view a sounding, click File and Open Sounding, and open one of the RTS tables from /nas/Radiosonde/.

Radiosonde Launch Dates

Check here to see any issues with the computers/data collection at the field site:

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