Notes on the dynasonde soundings on this disk (CD-TR202) Notes specific to this disk: ============================ From CD_TR181 onwards, a listing of the monthly output DSND files (DSNDyymm.zip) and ionograms from Autodsnd (Byymmdd.zip) files are made in DSNDfils.txt --------------------------------------------------------- General notes: ============== The data are from the Tromso dynasonde. From 23 November 2005 raw-mode soundings (.BPG) are regularly made, typically every second sounding, between normal .B_G soundings. These are analysed by AUTODSND (on the PC called heatwave) as well as being sent to NOAA for the latest analysis, and then are discarded. Previously, the analysed data were in files zipped into monthly files called DSND_BPyymm.zip where yy=year and mm=month. From February 2006 the DSND analysis of both BPG and B_G are merged into the same files called DSND0602.*** which are all zipped in DSNDyymm.zip The graphical output of both the BPG and B_G DSND analyses are archived together under DSND/DSNDI in daily zip files. Later in February (after 21 Feb 2006) the MTR version of DSND was used to produce .B_H files from the BPG files. The B_H files are in principle the same as B_G soundings except that the echo recognition has been done by Pretec. the B_H is the logical file extension following B_G where the H could mean 'hybrid' sounding. On 22 March 2006 I changed the no. of 'echoes' saved in the b_h soundings from 'all the mid echoes' to only the 1 echo. Size of b_h files goes down but the quality of echoes is still at least as good as and probably much better than the b_g files. The sometimes large number of missing soundings are all B_H soundings made from the BPG soundings which for some reason were not produced. The reason can vary from the DSND program hanging/stopping, too few or no echoes (later largely fixed) and so on. Sounding raw data ================= The soundings are stored in directories according to the month of recording. In some cases the soundings for a month are spread over more than one directory e.g. DEC1994a and DEC1994B. In the listings of soundings (files with extension .DIR) the dates and times were read from the soundings and should be as accurate as the dynasonde PC clock at the time of data taking. A few files which show a date as 19700101 have a corrupted time/date. The soundings are listed according to type in files B-MODES.DIR, I-MODES.DIR, K-MODES.DIR, P-MODES.DIR, as well as a total listing in LIST-ALL.DIR Note that P-mode soundings that raw data soundings of type I- or B-mode, although also "P-mode" are usually named *.IPG or *.BPG and are numbered and catalogued as I or B-mode. The CALIBS.DIR shows where calibration soundings (with file extension NOT *.?_? , usually of type *.?r?) are stored. The GAPS-x.TXT files show missing soundings (or repeated sounding numbers) for the four various modes of sounding (b,i,k,p). Bill Wright's Auto DSND analysis: ================================= The results of this analysis are saved under the directory dsnd_jww. The numerical results are in tables of the type DSNDYYMM.ext where YY and MM are year and month. The extensions are .ase: Mean E-region parameters, a line per sounding .asf: Mean F-region parameters, a line per sounding .fef: E- and F-layer penetration frequencies, a line per sounding .spr: Spread echo parameters for E and F regions, a line per sounding .txt: General output from the Autodsnd program .pen: Parameters derived from POLAN, a line per sounding .poe: POLAN Valley, Peak, and error log .pol: The actual POLAN true height inversions (since 12 March 2003). Since 22 Sept the following files are added, and .pol is removed: .poi POLAN true height inversions with input and intermediate values .tsq 3D POLAN plot data .vfl Detailed F-region velocity results .vel Detailed E-region velocity results .tsf Mean F-region parameters, a line per sounding (why different from .asf ?) .tse Mean E-region parameters, a line per sounding (why different from .ase ?) From Bill Wright: "The 48autodsnd.poi file is a change from its non-'48' version, which was getting absurdly large here (~30 MB). By giving it '48 hour' status, (rather than accumulating its content indefinitely), we could let our automated deletion process take care of it. By (intended) definition, the 48hour files are for details which are no longer wanted after they become 'stale'. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot put them on your CDs, especially if they fit, comfortably. The content of the poi file is sometimes of use to see why POLAN or the subsequent mods to the POLAN output, have messed up the profile. It is also a form which can be easily mailed (e.g., to Titheridge) to document particular cases: it contains the input data (formatted for POLAN), POLAN's raw output, and then a couple of stages of post-processing (e.g., to interpolate inside the valley, and around layer peaks). As of Oct 24, we (at NOAA) stopped producing the .pol files (which duplicated the last sub-table in the .poi file), in favor of the 48h poi file. The .tsq file(s) are what the 3D POLAN plot is made from. Each profile is one row in the table; along the row, after the ubiquitous Day of Year, contains the "plasma frequency" in 10's of kHz, and at logarithmic height spacings; the km values comprise the top row of the file: 70, 74, 79, 84 ... The aim, as with our log-log ionograms, is to give the E-region to the same (%) detail as the F-region. The .tol file (only in 48h form) gives mean values of the various "tolerances" (bad word) found in doing the echo classification into traces. There are two sets: "Old" and "New". During the classification, an echo is compared with all of the existing traces. The comparison involves each of the Uniphase variables, e.g., echolocation, say XL. The echo is put into the trace with the minimum SUM of the differences ("tolerances") across all such variables, unless the sum exceeds some limit; if so, the echo starts a new trace. In the column header, "OmDX NmDX OmDY NmDY ..." O and N signifiy "old trace" and "new trace", and m signifies "mean". All of the tolerances are dimensionless, but some have rather arbitrary scaling factors. The .tol file deserves more study than it gets, and obviously was not intended for public consumption. I try to follow a policy to let the file extension contain some clue of the file type (but I wont claim that the policy is dependable, nor free of my idiotsyncrocies (I cant spell the right word, so I made that one up). For TSE and TSF, it means that they are respectively for the E and F region "Trace" Structure Function results. By contrast, ASF and ASE are structure function results Averaged over ALL of the respective F and E-region traces. The averaging is weighted by the number of echoes in each trace. We dont do much with the TSF and TSE data, but we have good intentions. You are right about the VFL and VEL names ... VFITs for the "ALL Averages" for F and E-regions. There is the possibility for a table of Trace-specific velocities too, but it is not implemented yet. I should have added that the echolocation and velocity parameters in the ASF (etc.) structure-function results files are in "Nick's coordinate system". I dont know why he particularly wanted to change from the coordinates we have, but XTR = -XL and YTR = -YL, with consequent effects on the velocity azimuth. ---------------------------------------------- Graphical output (.gif files) are stored in the subdirectories DSNDi for ionograms, since 22 Sept 2003 with files named as: iTRmmddhhmm.gif . Text files associated with the .gif files are also stored since 22 Sept 2003 with file names: tTRmmddhhmm.txt. Zipped files are stored, one per day. ************************************************************* IDI data ======== The results from the IDI ("Imaging Doppler Interferometry") soundings are included. Since 2 May 1999, this mode has been running between interspersed between the B-mode soundings. The original P-mode soundings on which they are based are not recorded, nor are the P-mode sounding numbers incremented. The results, together with some analysis/potting IDL scripts are in the directory IDI_RSLT. A byproduct of these soundings are possible meteor echoes. They are recoded in the directory METEORS together with some IDL plotting scripts. The software running in Tromso is an implementation of that written by Owen Jones of BAS for use at Halley Bay. Information on the IDI technique is found in notes in the file idi_note.wpd. In brief: the yyyymmdd.ivb file is the day's results in binary file format. The yymmddbn.zip files contain the individual day's "parameter files" in binary format. From CD-TR070 the .dat files are also stored. This was previously not done. From about 30 Sept 2002 the absolute power for the whole range extent of the IDI (P-mode) soundings are saved as IDL3.61 SAVE files in the :\idirslt\powr-sav directory, and postscript plots are also saved in zipped files called mspw0210.zip (MeSospheric PoWer YYMM) in the :\idirslt directory. There are some IDL scripts which can handle these data. ***********************************************************