Project Description

NCEP/NCAR Arctic Marine Rawinsonde Archive

---

Summary:

The NCEP/NCAR Arctic Marine Rawinsonde Archive data set consists of marine rawinsonde data retrieved over a 20-year period from ships in the region north of 65 degrees North. The data set is useful for meteorological and climatological research applying to polar studies and investigations of global climate change. As a companion data set to Historical Arctic Rawinsonde Archive (HARA), NCEP/NCAR Arctic Marine Rawinsonde Archive is designed to complement HARA soundings data.

Table of Contents

1. Project Overview
2. Data Availability
3 Access
4. Principal Investigator
5. Submitting Investigator
6. References
7. Detailed Description

1. Project Overview

The NCEP/NCAR Arctic Marine Rawinsonde Archive data set, available through file transfer protocol (ftp), contains 17,659 ship (marine) rawinsonde reports for the region north of 65 degrees North. Its record extends from 1976 to 1996. These soundings have been extracted from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) rawinsonde archive of the National Meteorological Center (NMC) (now National Center for Environmental prediction, or NCEP).

2. Data Availability

Original ship soundings were in formats outlined by Mulder (1977). Data were extracted and sorted first by pressure and second by altitude (geopotential height), with duplicate records merged to the extent possible. The sort/merge procedures follow those used to compile the Historical Arctic Rawinsonde Archive (HARA). This data set is made available via ftp.

3. Access

NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449  USA
phone: +1 303.492.6199
fax: +1 303.492.2468
form: Contact NSIDC User Services
e-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org

4. Principal Investigators

Mark Serreze
Jonathan D. Kahl

6. References

Mulder, P. 1977. Record format for the NCAR archive of NMC upper air data. NOAA Office Note. (Updated by G. Walters, 1992.) 29.

Kahl, J. D., M. C. Serreze, S. Shiotani, S. M. Skony, and R. C. Schnell. 1992. In-situ meteorological sounding archives for Arctic studies. Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 73(11):1824-1830.

Serreze, M. C., J. D. Kahl, and S. Shiotani. 1992. The Historical Arctic Rawinsonde Archive documentation manual. Special Report-2. National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

Serreze, M. C., M. C. Rehder, R. G. Barry, J. D. Kahl, and N. A. Zaitseva. 1995. The distribution and transport of atmospheric water vapour over the Arctic Basin. International Journal of Climatology, 15: 709-27.

7. Detailed Description

Please see the NCEP/NCAR Arctic Marine Rawinsonde Archive data set documentation.

---

Document Type: Project Document
Revision Date: October 1, 1997