Overview of the SHOUT AVAPS Dropsonde System

The Earth Observing Lab (EOL) at NCAR has developed dropsonde systems for very diverse science applications and from unique platforms including 1) the Driftsonde program, a high altitude long duration balloon based system fully automated dropsonde system, 2) automatic dropsonde systems developed for NCAR/NSF’s G-V and NASA’s Global Hawk UAS, and 3) multiple manned research aircraft. This paper will describe the NCAR dropsonde technology developed for the NASA Global Hawk UAS that supported the SHOUT program based upon the core NCAR dropsonde technology. Also provided will be an overview of the sonde technology including sensor performance and the data post processing applied to each sounding. During the SHOUT program a systematic temperature dependent dry bias in the RH sensor was discovered which applied to all soundings for the SHOUT campaign. Included will be an overview of the RH dry bias and the post processing correction that was made to all SHOUT soundings.