Identification

Title

On the detection of icing conditions at altitude in conjunction with mesoscale convective complexes using balloon sondes

Abstract

Balloon-borne radiosondes are launched twice daily at coordinated times worldwide to assist with weather forecasting. Data collection from each flight is usually terminated when the balloon bursts at an altitude above 20 km. This paper highlights cases where the balloon's turnaround occurs at lower altitudes and is associated with ice formation on the balloon, a weather condition of interest to aviation safety. Four examples of such cases are shown, where the balloon oscillates between 3-and 6-km altitude before rising to high altitudes and bursting. This oscillation is due to the accumulation and melting of ice on the balloon, causing the pattern to repeat multiple times. An analysis of National Weather Service radiosonde data over a 5-yr period and a global dataset from the National Centers for Environmental Information from 1980 to 2020 identified that 0.18% of soundings worldwide satisfied these criteria. This indicates that weather conditions important to aviation safety are not rare in the worldwide database. We recommend that soundings that show descent at altitudes lower than typically expected continue to be tracked, particularly given that these up-down-oscillating soundings can pro -vide valuable information for weather forecasting on days with significant precipitation and icing conditions that might lead to aviation safety concerns.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d74t6pdk

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-09-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact