Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate (RATPAC) Readme file - June 2021 This file lists the contents of the RATPAC ftp directory and describes the format of the various files available. ${b2t}/ For additional information about RATPAC, see https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/weather-balloon/radiosonde-atmospheric-temperature-products-accessing-climate Contents of https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/ratpac/ Directories: ratpac-a Output files for RATPAC-A ratpac-b Output files for RATPAC-B Files: ratpac-stations.txt List of stations used in the RATPAC project ratpac-countries.txt List of country codes used in the RATPAC station list readme.txt This file status.txt Notes on the current status of the online files Format Description of RATPAC Data Files: 1. 'RATPAC-A-annual-levels.txt': Annual mean temperature anomalies for 7 regions -- hemispheres, globe, tropics (30N-30S), extratropics and 20N-20S, for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mb. Pressure levels are surface, 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50 and 30 mb. 999.00 denotes missing data. Headers: Data for each of the 7 regions appears after a two-line header containing: Line 1: Name of the region Line 2: column headings for the data Data format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- year 1-4 Year, starting in 1958 surface temp 5-11 Temperature anomaly at surface, K temperature 12-95 Temperature anomalies at 12 pressure levels, each as Fortran format f7.2, in K 2. 'RATPAC-A-seasonal-layers.txt': Seasonal mean temperature anomalies for the globe, hemispheres, tropics, extratropics and 20N-20S, for three atmospheric layers: 850-300 mb, 300-100 mb, and 100-50 mb. 999.00 denotes missing data. Headers: Data for each of the 7 regions appears after a two-line header containing: Line 1: Name of the atmospheric layer Line 2: column headings for the data Data format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- year 1-4 Year, starting in 1958 seas 5-8 Season, with 1=DJF, 2=MAM, 3=JJA, 4=SON temperature 9-57 Temperature anomalies for 7 regions, each as Fortran format f7.2, in K 3. 'RATPAC-B-monthly-combined.txt': Monthly mean temperature anomalies (means of 0Z and 12Z observations) for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mb, for 85 stations. Station data are listed in order of WMO station ID, found in the file 'ratpac-stations.txt'. Pressure levels are surface, 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50 and 30 mb. 999.00 denotes missing data. Data format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- station number 1-3 Number from 1-85 denoting the rank of the station in the 85-station set blank 4 year 5-8 Year, starting in 1958 month 9-12 Number of the month (January=1, etc.) temperature 13-103 Temperature anomalies for 13 levels, in K, each as Fortran format f7.2 blank 104-106 station ID 107-111 WMO station ID number 4. 'RATPAC-B-monthly-00Z.txt': Monthly mean temperature anomalies for 00Z for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mb, for 85 stations. Station data are listed in the station order found in the file 'ratpac-stations.txt'. Format is the same as for RATPAC-B-monthly-combined.txt, described above. 5. 'RATPAC-B-monthly-12Z.txt': Monthly mean temperature anomalies for 12Z for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mb, for 85 stations. Station data are listed in the station order found in the file 'ratpac-stations.txt'. Format is the same as for RATPAC-B-monthly-combined.txt, described above. 6. 'RATPAC-B-annual-regions.txt': Annual mean temperature anomalies for the globe, hemispheres, tropics and extratropics, plus 30-degree zonal bands from 60-90 N to 60-90 S, for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mb, based on RATPAC-B station data. 999.00 denotes missing data. Headers: Data for each of the regions appears after a two-line header containing: Line 1: Name of the region Line 2: column headings for the data Data format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- year 1-4 Year, starting in 1958 surface temp 5-11 Temperature anomaly at surface, K temperature 12-95 Temperature anomalies at 12 pressure levels, each as Fortran format f7.2, in K 7. 'ratpac-stations.txt': Station list of the 85 stations whose data are used in RATPAC A and B. Format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- Name 1-16 Station name Country 18-19 FIPS country code Latitude 24-29 Latitude, decimal degrees Longitude 31-37 Longitude, decimal degrees Elevation 40-43 Elevation, m Station ID 45-49 WMO station identifier Obs. times 52-62 Observation times used to create monthly temperature anomalies 8. 'ratpac-countries.txt': List of country codes used by RATPAC Format: Variable Name Columns Description -------------------- ------- ----------- Country code 1-2 FIPS country code Country name 5-44 FIPS country name