NSF NCAR dropsondes have been providing essential atmospheric observations since 1974
Oct 15, 2024 - by Laura Snider
Fifty years ago this fall, atmospheric researchers from across the globe were wrapping up the largest and most ambitious atmospheric research field campaign that had been executed to date, known as GATE - or more formally, the Global Atmospheric Research Program's Atlantic Tropical Experiment.
The campaign lasted 100 days and involved more than 5,000 scientists, technicians, and support staff from 72 countries (including approximately 40 staff from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NSF NCAR) as well as 39 ships and 13 aircraft (including the NSF NCAR Electra). Among GATE's many legacies is the first use of the modern dropsonde, a tube-shaped instrument package developed at NSF NCAR that is jettisoned out of an aircraft before floating to the ground under a small parachute, collecting data about temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind speed as it falls.
The dropsonde has since become ubiquitous on airborne research and reconnaissance missions, proving time and again the essential value of observations from within extreme weather events to improve both our understanding of their physics and our ability to forecast their evolution, saving lives and livelihoods.
Over the last half century, the NSF NCAR Dropsonde Program has remained the leader in developing dropsonde technology, ensuring that dropsondes continually became more accurate, more affordable, and lighter weight.
"Dropsondes are an amazing success story that highlights the importance of having a national center," said Holger Vömel, an NSF NCAR senior scientist who works with the Dropsonde Program. "The observations provided by dropsondes have allowed scientists to make giant leaps forward in our understanding of the atmosphere generally and severe weather in particular. This is exactly the kind of work that makes sense for NSF NCAR to take on, and the result has benefited not just researchers, but operational forecasters and society as a whole."
See full article: https://news.ucar.edu/132985/50-years-falling
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Rachel Dammann
UCAR, UCP and NSF NCAR
Boulder CO
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