Data quality control and calibration for mini-radiosonde system “Storm Tracker” in Taiwan

Abstract. This study introduced and evaluated the calibration schemes of a newly developed upper-air radiosonde instrument, “Storm Tracker” (ST), with data collected in field observations during 2016–2022. The ST is a radiosonde instrument developed and tested in 2016 (Hwang et al., 2020). In a series of field campaigns in the Taiwan area, more than one thousand co-launches of ST and Vaisala RS41-SGP (VS) are conducted. Using the VS measurements as the reference, we developed data correction methods and examined the characteristics of the ST sounding. The corrected ST soundings have 1-K temperature and 7 % relative humidity root mean square difference to the VS soundings. These error differences can be reduced to 0.66-K and 4.61 % below the 700-hPa height. The GPS estimated ST wind error difference is about 0.05 ms-1. The results suggested that the ST can perform similarly to the reference sounding and has reached the level required for environmental sampling and scientific research. The geostrophic adjustment dynamics indicate that the spatial temperature variation in the free atmosphere may not be large. However, the lower atmosphere may have large wind, temperature, and moisture variations. Due to the relatively low cost and accuracy after correction, ST can complement regular upper-air observations for high spatial and temporal resolution.