Weather Balloon Data

NOAA weather balloon carrying atmospheric instruments

Weather data from the atmosphere, beginning at three meters above the Earth's surface, are considered weather balloon or upper air data. These data are obtained from radiosondes, which are instrument packages tethered to balloons that are launched from the ground, ascend through the troposphere into the stratosphere, and transmit back to a receiving station on the ground. These observations include vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and geopotential height.

• Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA)
  Radiosonde and pilot balloon observations at over 1,500 globally distributed stations for standard, surface, tropopause, and significant levels
• Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate (RATPAC)
  Station and regional-mean time series of temperature anomalies that extend from 1958 to present derived from radiosonde observations taken at globally distributed stations