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    • Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate (RATPAC), Version 2

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2023

    The Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate (RATPAC) consist of time series of radiosonde-based temperature anomalies for the years 1958-present in which the temporal inhomogeneities resulting from changes in instruments and observing practices have been reduced to the extent possible. Developed through a collaborative effort involving NOAA scientists from the Air Resources Laboratory, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and NCEI, the RATPAC time series are based on data from 85 stations distributed around global land areas and are available on 13 atmospheric pressure levels: the surface, 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50, and 30 hPa. Two sub-products, RATPAC-A and RATPAC-B, were derived using different approaches to meet this need based largely in part on the Temporal Homogenization of Monthly Radiosonde Temperature Data (LKS) bias-adjusted dataset. RATPAC-A contains adjusted global, hemispheric, tropical, and extratropical mean temperature anomalies. From 1958 through 1995, the bases of the data are on spatial averages of LKS adjusted 87-station temperature data. After 1995, they are based on the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) station data, combined using a first difference method. RATPAC-B contains data for individual stations as well as large-scale arithmetic averages corresponding to areas used for RATPAC-A. The station data consist of adjusted data produced by LKS for the period 1958-1997 and unadjusted data from IGRA after 1997. The regional mean time series in RATPAC-B are based on arithmetic averaging of these station data, rather than the first difference method used to create RATPAC-A. The difference between this version and the original version of RATPAC is that the IGRA component of Version 2 is taken from IGRA v2 rather than IGRA v1.

    Access & Use Information

    License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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    Dates

    Metadata Date June 23, 2023
    Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
    Reference Date(s) 2016-09 (creation)
    Frequency Of Update monthly

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from ncdc

    Other Data Resources

    Graphic Preview

    Upper air balloon

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Date June 23, 2023
    Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
    Reference Date(s) 2016-09 (creation)
    Responsible Party NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (Point of Contact)
    Contact Email
    Guid gov.noaa.ncdc:C00978
    Access Constraints Cite as: Durre, Imke; Xungang, Yin; Vose, Russell S.; Applequist, Scott. Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate, Version 2. [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. DOI:10.7289/V5SF2T7J [access date]., Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
    Bbox East Long 180.0
    Bbox North Lat 90.0
    Bbox South Lat -90.0
    Bbox West Long -180.0
    Coupled Resource
    Frequency Of Update monthly
    Graphic Preview Description Upper air balloon
    Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/images/C00975-8.png
    Graphic Preview Type PNG
    Harvest Object Id b6c61463-55c2-4742-b7da-309fd1799821
    Harvest Source Id 2cb3ef77-1683-4c2a-9119-dc65e50917c6
    Harvest Source Title ncdc
    Licence Approximately 15 of the 85 stations used have closed since the 1990s, resulting in a decrease in the station density over time. The impact of this reduction in the station network on the RATPAC time series has not been assessed.
    Lineage The data sources and processing methods are documented in several peer-reviewed papers.
    Metadata Language eng; USA
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
    Progress onGoing
    Spatial Data Service Type
    Spatial Reference System
    Spatial Harvester True
    Temporal Extent Begin 1958

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