National Weather Service manual 10-1401: Rawinsonde observations

Since the late 1930's the National Weather Service (NWS) has measured vertical profiles of pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind velocity through the use of balloon-borne radiosondes. This manual defines upper-air operational requirements and procedures applicable to all NWS stations. These instructions cover those sites engaged in taking and reporting atmospheric observations with Vaisala Automatic Radio-Theodolite (ART) Radiosondes and the MicroART computer system as well as those sites using Global Positioning System (GPS) radiosondes with the Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) tracking system.