A Viable Alternative for Conducting Cost-Effective Daily Atmospheric Soundings in Developing Countries

Abstract

The primary factor accounting for the lack of sounding data availability is, quite simply, cost. Budgets allocated to soundings in developing countries of Africa and South America are often limited or a minute part of a bigger budget. This results in the inability of a vast majority of developing countries to comply with the standards set by the WMO in their 2007 revision of the WMO Convention originally published on 11 October 1947. Here, we take as an example the Instituto de Hidrologia, Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM), which, as the governmental institute for meteorological and hydrological services of Colombia, is responsible for recording the climate at a national level. In 2011, the meteorological station of the IDEAM in Leticia (WMO #80398), based in the southern tip of the Colombian Amazon and hence in charge of recording meteorological data on global water vapor regulation in a critical region, received funding for a total of only 119 flights, whereas the T HE IMPORTANCE OF ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDINGS. While accuracy and coverage of satellite imagery have improved markedly in recent years, radiosonde-collected data still provide us with the most detailed measurements of the troposphere (i.e., the lower part of the atmosphere where most hydrological atmospheric processes occur) due to their fine vertical resolution (i.e., 5-10 m). However, instrument biases (temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind direction, and wind speed) are compounded in the tropics by relying on sparse sampling of data. Figure 1 shows the locations of operational sounding stations from the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) upper-air network (GUAN) as recorded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in February 2011. The figure illustrates the scarcity of sounding stations, particularly in developing countries compared to other parts of the globe.

Evaluation of Windsond S1H2 performance in Kumasi during the 2016 DACCIWA field campaign

“…The development of a cheaper reusable radiosounding system could contribute to the development of a denser operational network in regions of the world with limited financial resources, in addition to being useful for field campaigns where mul-tiple shallow soundings are needed. Reusable sondes have been introduced for the first time by Legain et al (2013), which modified a Vaisala sonde to enclose it in a cage which is tethered to two balloons. The system allowed one balloon to detach at a desired altitude and have the caged sonde slowly descend with the second balloon prior to recovery.…”

An Appraisal of the Progress in Utilizing Radiosondes and Satellites for Monitoring Upper Air Temperature Profiles

“…For instance, the number of papers published between 2000 and 2023 (Figure 2) indicates that there has been a significant surge in interest in using RS measurements for upper air temperature observations, and 2019 emerged as the most productive year. Figure 2 also portrays a steady decline in the number of publications from 2020 to 2023 despite the expansion of the global operational upper air network over the years from about 800 stations in the year 2014 [73] to approximately 1723 stations in 2019 [54]. However, the exact number of active RS launching sites that exist globally to date is still not clear as the number fluctuates due to a couple of factors.…”

A Brief Assessment of the Impact of Nearly 40 Years of Assimilated Observations Over the Amazon Basin

“…The relevance of radiosondes in the region has been emphasized in many works, some of which suggest approaches to improve upon the network. Among these, there are innovative ideas to help enhance the availability of such observations on a routine basis, especially over remote regions such as the Amazon basin (e.g., glidersondes of Lafon et al, ).…”

“…improve upon the network. Among these, there are innovative ideas to help enhance the availability of such observations on a routine basis, especially over remote regions such as the Amazon basin (e.g., glidersondes of Lafon et al, 2014).…”