The UK Met Office is undertaking a program to modernize its operational upper-air data collection network. Emphasis is placed on integrated data sets provided by instrumentation that increases automation, reduces labor costs and improves temporal and spatial data resolution.

Wind profiling technology has played a significant role in this modernization program. The Met Office has thus far installed three operational boundary layer wind profilers in Camborne, Dunkeswell and Wattisham (England) over the past five years. A fourth “research” system had also been providing data from Aberystwyth, Wales until its recent deployment to Outer Hebrides Islands, Scotland. Currently installed on S. Uist Island, this research system was relocated in the autumn of 2002 in conjunction with decommissioning of the Stornoway rawinsonde station and to support evaluation of a newly acquired 64 MHz wind profiler.

The 64 MHz wind profiler was installed at S. Uist in the summer of 2003. Acquired as a rawinsonde replacement, this system is the first 64 MHz wind profiler acquired exclusively for purposes of operational upper-air data collection. Requiring well-defined constraints on wind measurement accuracy and data recovery, a rigorous verification/acceptance program was conducted by the Met Office comparing the 64 MHz wind profiler data with the co-located boundary layer system, GPS rawinsonde winds, and numerical model output.

This paper will review the Met Office’s on-going plans to assimilate integrated upper-air data sets, review the 64 MHz wind profiler’s system architecture, and provide statistical review of system performance.