NCEP ADP Global Upper Air Observational Weather Data, October 1999 - continuing

NCEP ADP Global Upper Air Observational Weather Data are composed of global upper air weather reports operationally collected by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). These include radiosondes, pibals and aircraft reports from the Global Telecommunications System (GTS), and satellite data from the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS). The reports can include pressure, geopotential height, air temperature, dew point temperature, wind direction and speed. Data may be available at up to 20 mandatory levels from 1000 millibars to 1 millibar, plus a few significant levels. Report intervals range from hourly to 12 hourly. These data are the primary input to the NCEP Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS), which is used to create the NCEP Final Tropospheric Analyses (FNL).

Full daily data can be downloaded in BUFR or LITTLE_R format. Spatial subsets decoded into ASCII can also be selected by latitude/longitude or station ID.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • Thomas Cram
    tcram@ucar.edu
    NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange

Temporal Range

  • Begin:  1900-01-17
    End:  2045-11-30

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin 1900-01-17
Temporal Range End 2045-11-30
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat 89.9988
Bounding Box South Lat -90
Bounding Box West Long -180
Bounding Box East Long 180
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links

Related Resource #1 : NCEP BUFRLIB software

Related Resource #2 : NCEP model data (includes upperair BUFR data in the 'GDAS' directories)

Related Resource #3 : NCEP BUFRLIB MNEMONICS

Related Resource #4 : NCEI GDAS BUFR archive
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format LITTLE_R
WMO_BUFR
Standardized Resource Format OTHER
BUFR
Asset Size 872832 MB
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name Thomas Cram
Resource Support Email tcram@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization NSF NCAR - Geoscience Data Exchange
Distributor NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

Author Satellite Services Division, Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Weather Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Publisher NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Publication Date 2004-02-23
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/39C5-Z211
Alternate Identifier d351000
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
Progress onGoing
Metadata Date 2025-10-07T11:53:59Z
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::d351000
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Satellite Services Division, Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Weather Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. (2004). NCEP ADP Global Upper Air Observational Weather Data, October 1999 - continuing. NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://doi.org/10.5065/39C5-Z211. Accessed 08 October 2025.

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