An assessment of different radiosonde types 2015/2016

Observation minus background radiosonde statistics have been examined for a two year period, split by latitude band and radiosonde type (or groups of types). As a result some dependence of observation uncertainty on radiosonde type is being introduced for temperature and humidity.  The background information helps to detect some gross errors in the radiosonde data and the radiosonde data helps to document some weaknesses of the background – due to model biases or inability to represent small scale features.  There are also implications for quality control and verification. Available information on currently used radiosonde types and their processing has been summarised.