NOUS41 KWBC 011906 CCA
PNSWSH
 
Technical Implementation Notice 12-26, Corrected
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
303 PM EDT Mon Oct 1 2012
         
TO:        Subscribers:
          -Family of Services
          -NOAA Weather Wire Service
          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          -NOAAPORT 
          Other NWS Partners and Employees
 
FROM:     Kevin Schrab       
          Chief, Observing Services Division 
          Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services
 
SUBJECT:  Corrected: 2012 Dates for Termination of Automated
          Radiotheodolite Tracking (ART) and Radio Direction
          Finding Radiosondes (RDF) with Installation of
          Radiosonde Replacement Systems (RRS)
 
Corrected to include the code 045208 established for the 
new radiosonde in service at these three sites.
 
Three Upper Air (UA) sites are scheduled to begin RRS service 
in the next 4 months in 2012.
 
STATION NAME   WMO #      STN ID    RRS START ON/ABOUT
------------   -----      ------    ------------------ 
CARIBOU        72712      KCAR      15 June 2012
GUAM           91212      PGUM      26 July 2012
BARROW         70026      PABR      30 Aug 2012
 
The NWS UA observations will gather meteorological data from Global 
Positioning System (GPS) radiosondes of a new type: the Vaisala 
RS92-NGP.  The assigned equipment code is 045208. The leading 04 
indicates a correction is applied for solar and infrared exposure. 
The 08 suffix indicates automatic satellite navigation.  This code 
appears immediately after the heading 31313 in the TTAA, TTBB, TTCC, 
and TTDD messages. 
 
The NWS describes the RRS release point location with the National 
Geodetic Survey (NGS) OPUS solution. This is a datum combination 
that relies on North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83) for latitude 
and longitude, whereas the release point elevation is based on North 
American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88) with the GEOID03 model. 
By contrast the GPS radiosonde flight information of latitude and 
longitude and altitude will rely on the world geodetic system of 1984 
(WGS84) standard. 
 
Parts of the UA coded messages will be significantly longer with RRS 
conversion. NWS has coordinated with its partners on the longer 
length of these messages.
 
The format of the messages will be the same WMO format for coded 
UA messages used with the MicroArt legacy system. The number of 
levels in the coded messages will be two to three times greater for 
the TTBB and TTDD.  As a result, two categories of AWIPS text products 
will increase in size:  SGL and ABV. The number of levels in the TTAA, 
TTCC, PPBB and PPDD parts will be relatively unchanged. These changes 
     TTCC:   10 Levels  
     TTBB:  135 Levels   
     TTDD:   40 Levels 
     PPBB:   40 Levels 
     PPDD:   40 Levels 
 
In addition, the 31313 message indicator associated with various 
parts of the message will be included with each part of the 
thermodynamic message parts. 
 
For additional information on the message requirements, please see 
the WMO 306 Manual on Codes (International Codes):  Volume I.1 
Part A - Alphanumeric Codes, and Volume II, Regional Codes and 
National Coding Practices.  Users can find information on the levels 
selection criteria used in NWS coding software online at:
 
  http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov
 
If you have questions or feedback, please contact:
 
  Joseph Facundo
  Observing Systems Branch (OPS22)
  National Weather Service
  1325 East West Highway
  Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
  301-713-2093 Ext. 101 
  Joseph.Facundo@noaa.gov
 
National Technical Implementation notices are online at:
 
  http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
 
$$