The new Radiosounding HARMonization (RHARM) dataset of homogenized radiosounding temperature, humidity and wind profiles with uncertainties. Part I: dataset description and characterisation.

Intercomparison of Vaisala RS92 and RS41 radiosonde temperature sensors under controlled laboratory conditions

“…Vaisala RS92 radiosondes, introduced in 2003, have been mostly used on a global scale until 2016 (Madonna et al, 2021b). In particular, within the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN, Bodeker et al, 2016; http://www.gruan.org), these radiosondes have been adopted by the majority of sites to provide reference measurements, i.e.…”

“…To improve measurement accuracy, in the fall of 2013 Vaisala introduced the RS41 radiosonde to progressively replace the RS92, whose production was terminated late in 2017, although some time is clearly needed to have the majority of global radiosouding stations operating the new RS41 at the same time. Sensors' changes typically lead to inhomogeneities in data records, which may systematically alter the climate signal contained in the data and potentially affect radiosounding historical time series and associated applications and analysis, as demonstrated by several studies (Gaffen, 1994;Parker and Cox, 1995;Lanzante, 1996;Sherwood et al, 2005Sherwood et al, , 2015Haimberger et al, 2008Haimberger et al, , 2012Madonna et al, 2021b).…”