VORTEX2: Multi-Network Composite Highest Resolution Upper Air Data. Version 1.0

This data set is a composite of radiosondes collected from 5 sounding platforms (see Section 2.3) during the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 (VORTEX2) with data collected from 10 May 2009 through 13 June 2009 and from 1 May 2010 through 15 June 2010. This project was conducted in the central United States and contains a total of 4697 soundings. The 2009 data includes 2578 soundings with 241 high vertical resolution (2-sec) soundings from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility (C1) site near Lamont, OK, 106 radiosonde soundings from two mobile GPS Advanced Upper_Air Sounding (GAUS) systems operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), 118 radiosonde soundings from two mobile GPS Advanced Upper_Air Sounding (GAUS) systems operated by the NOAA National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL), two high vertical resolution (2 sec) soundings from the West Texas Mesonet Reese Center, TX site, and 2111 soundings from 17 National Weather Service (NWS) sites (all but one have 1 sec vertical resolution, other is 6 sec). The 2010 data includes 2121 soundings with 182 high vertical resolution (2-sec) soundings from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility (C1) site near Lamont, OK, 174 radiosonde soundings from two mobile GPS Advanced Upper_Air Sounding (GAUS) systems operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), 186 radiosonde soundings from two mobile GPS Advanced Upper_Air Sounding (GAUS) systems operated by the NOAA National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL), three high vertical resolution (2 sec) soundings from the West Texas Mesonet Reese Center, TX site, and 1576 soundings from 17 National Weather Service (NWS) sites (all but one have 1 sec vertical resolution, other is 6 sec). All soundings are provided at the highest possible resolution (i.e. the 'native' resolution).