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NASA USIP 2016-2018: Thermosonde
The NASA USIP project aims to develop a digital thermosonde instrument for measuring temperature differences between two platinum wire probes (2 um diameter) and relate that to the refractive index structure parameter Cn2.
Project Codes
readsounding.py
readsounding.py is a pseudo-universal sounding reading module that reads in a sounding and returns a dictionary containing standard sounding data (p,t,z,spd,dir,u,v) as well as name information for the sounding. This module is part of ADPAA and is located in $ADPAA_DIR/srcpython_lib/. The returned dictionary contains the following data:
S['NAME'] : file title containing the year, month, day, hour, and type of sounding S['TITLE'] : Plot title containing the location, year, month, day, and UTC hour of sounding S['LABEL'] : Plot label containing the type, date, location, and hour of sounding S['PRESS'] : pressure (in hPa) S['ALT'] : altitude (in m) S['TEMP'] : temperature (in degC) S['DP'] : dew point temperature (in degC) S['SPD'] : wind speed (in kts) S['DIR'] : wind direction (in degrees) S['U'] : zonal wind speed (in kts) S['V'] : meridional wind speed (in kts)
If a GRAW RTS table is being read, it will also contain:
S['TIME'] : seconds from the start of the flight (seconds) S['UTC'] : UTC seconds from midnight (seconds)
Usage
To import all functions from readsounding:
>>> from readsounding import *
To read in a sounding:
>>> a = readsounding('sounding file')
Example
To read in sounding data from a sounding named MCR_8_Aug_1000a_1.txt:
>>> S = readsounding('MCR_8_Aug_1000a_1.txt')
To access the data in the returned dictionary:
>>> S['TEMP'] array([ 28. , 27.5, 27.2, ..., -37.8, -37.5, -37.4]) >>> S['PRESS'] array([ 1012.5 , 1010.5 , 1007.09, ..., 11.56, 11.5 , 11.45])