This document contains information about radiosonde data malfunctions.

02/08/2007:
Greeting from the ice,

  I just wanted to give you both a heads up concerning Mac Weathers
upper air, and why some seem to be missing). We have been experiencing
problems with the sondes. There have been times when we could not lock
on the sonde (in some cases, the observer tried using a different
sonde). I check with South Pole weather and they seem to be experiencing
the same problems. South Pole stated they tried contacting Vaisala
however they have yet to get a response. The only way we seem to get a
good lock on the sonde is to soak the battery for 30-45 minutes; however
there have been cases were this did not work either. I am not sure there
is a bad batch of sondes or just a weird thing going on with them.



  Again I just wanted to give you heads up...



Have a great day,

Joann

Mac Weather