SondeHub maintains a database of radiosonde launch sites, including information on radiosonde types used, frequencies, launch times, and other useful information. This information is used to show launch site information on the sondehub.org map, and allow flight path predictions for future launches to be generated.

Finding Site Information

Probably the easiest way to look for sites that we know about is to look on the https://sondehub.org/ map. Sites can be clicked on to bring up details:

The entire site database is available in JSON format via this API: https://api.v2.sondehub.org/sites

Suggesting updates or additions to the Site database

To suggest a new site be added, please use the Google Form here: https://forms.gle/GserZmFAif5z9QXH9

To suggest updates to an existing site, please use the 'Contribute here' link on the site popup on sondehub.org, which will pre-fill a lot of the site information for you.

Site suggestions are manually reviewed and added into our database. This requires a lot of verification of submitted data, and it can take a few weeks for suggestions to be actioned.

When you submit a suggestion via our form, it will be added as a comment to this issue: https://github.com/projecthorus/sondehub-tracker/issues/114

Once processed, the comment will be hidden with a reason:

• Resolved - Suggestion actioned.
• Duplicate - Suggestion was a duplicate, or very similar to a previous suggestion.
• Spam / Off-Topic - Suggestion included obviously incorrect or invalid data.

Please take note of the following points when requesting updates or additions:

• We record site launch times as their 'nominal' sampling time (e.g. 00Z, 12Z). This usually means that the sonde is actually launches up to an hour before this. Please do not request a change from this nominal launch time to the actual launch time.
• The descent rate that we record is the descent rate on landing.
• Please be patient and do not submit site suggestions more than once! If there is some reason that a site should be added urgently, then contact us at [email protected]

SondeHub-Specific Sites

For site which we can't find (or don't know) a WMO ID for, we allocate a negative number, working backwards from 0.

Our current list of non-WMO sites is below:

-1: Melbourne BoM Training Annex (Training and Ozonesondes) (Australia)
-2: METEOMODEM Headquarters (France)
-3: DGA Essais de missiles (France)
-4: Woomera Rangehead (Australia)
-6: Zahorie (Slovakia)
-9: Alcantara Launch Center (Brazil)
-10: Karlskoga (Sweden)
-11: Porkkala (Finland)
-12: Houston AMF1 (United States)
-13: Vaisala Head Office (Finland)
-15: Kem Syed Sirajuddin (Malaysia)
-16: St Michel l'Observatoire (France)
-17: Pinneberg (Germany)
-18: Arahal / Moron (Spain)
-19: AMF2 Crested Butte (United States)
-20: Garrison Petawawa (Canada)
-21: Nikinci (Serbia)
-22: Gelibolu/Lefkosa (Cyprus)
-23: Aire Sur Adour (France)
-24: University of Reims (France)
-25: Humenné (Slovakia)
-26: Pabrade (Lithuania)
-27: Leipzig (Germany)
-28: Saint-Jean-d'Illac (France)
-29: Calw (Germany)
-30: Hohenlockstedt (Germany)
-31: Bracciano (Italy)
-32: Stera Oy (Finland)
-33: Lohtaja (Finland)
-34: Katajaluoto (Finland)
-35: Niinisalo (Finland)
-36: San Nicolas (United States)
-37: University of L'Aquila (Italy)
-38: Nowa Deba (Poland)
-39: Marshall Field Site (United States)
-40: Swidwin (Poland)
-41: Suippes (France)
-42: Trainou (France)
-43: Port Wakefield Proof and Experimental Establishment (Australia)
-44: Canjuers (France)
-45: Thun (Switzerland)
-46: Adazi (Latvia)
-47: Elsenborn (Belgium)
-48: Frauenfeld (Switzerland)
-49: North Utah Test and Training Range (United States)
-50: Howard University (United States)
-51: SIRTA/Palaiseau (France)
-52: Ås University NMBU (Norway)
-53: University of Helsinki, Faculty of Science (Helsinki, Finland)
-54: Whalers Way (Southern Launch)
-55: CNRS-LPC2E Orleans(France)
-57: Table Mountain Facility - Jet Propulsion Lab (United States)
-58: Scripps Institute, La Jolla (United States)
-59: "Aeródrome Virgen de La Estrella/ ICAO LEVE/ Spain (Spain)"
-60: Plymouth Municipal Airport (Plymouth State University Launches)
-61: White Sands Missile Range (United States)
-62: White Sands Missile Range Stallion Airfield (United States)
-63: Central Michigan University (United States)
-64: Intermet Systems HQ, Grand Rapids, Mi. (United States)
-65: Valparaiso University (United States)
-66: Barreira do Inferno Launch Center (Brazil)
-67: Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Colombia)
-68: National Typhoon Center (South Korea)
-69: Northern Tropical Atmospheric Research Station (Barbados)
-70: Jorge Newbery Airfield (Argentina)
-71: Nha Be Weather Radar Station (Vietnam)
-72: White Sands Missile Range Rhode Canyon Range Center (United States)
-73: StarBase, Texas (SpaceX)
-74: Birdlings Flat (New Zealand)
-75: McMillin Reservoir (United States)
-76: Groom Lake (United States)
-77: Severe Weather Institute, University of Alabama (United States)
-78: Catalina Island, Centre for Western Weather and Water Extremes (United States)
-79: Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (Australia)
-80: Millersville University (United States)
-81: Eskmeals (United Kingdom)
-82: älvdalen skjutfält (Sweden)
-83: Andoya space center (Norway)
-84: Midway Research Center - Naval Research Lab (NRL) (United States, Virginia)
-85: Dahlgren Naval Support Facility (United States, Virginia)
-86: Meteo-Radiy HQ, Kasli (Russia)
-87: Alcantarilla Air Base (Spain)
-88: Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division - Oak Ridge, TN, (United States)
-89: Jülich (Germany)
-90: ARM Bankhead National Forest (United States)
-91: Timmins/Victor M Power (Canada)
-92: Reading University (United Kingdom)
-93: Beecroft Weapons Range (Australia)
-94: University of Virginia (United States)
-95: Esrange (Sweden)
-96: Saxavord (United Kingdom)
-97: Graw Radiosondes GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)
-98: UVA Mountain Lake Biological Station (United States)
-99: Morgan State University - Lake Clifton Extension (Maryland, United States)
-100: Al Wathba (United Arab Emirates)
-101: Bogeda Bay (CW3E: USBOD, United States)
-102: Lüneburg AP (Germany)
-103: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (Germany)
-104: Tooele Army Depot, South (United States)

Old(ish) Developer Notes

Updating sites list:

Generate station list

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/projecthorus/sondehub-tracker/master/launchSites.json | \
jq -rc '.[] |
{
    station: .station,
    rs_types: .rs_types,
    position: [.lon, .lat],
    alt: .alt ,
    station_name: .station_name,
    times:  .times,
    burst_altitude: .burst_altitude,
    burst_samples: .burst_samples,
    burst_std: .burst_std,
    descent_rate: .descent_rate,
    descent_samples: .descent_samples,
    descent_std: .descent_std
} | del(..|nulls) | {"index":{}},.' | pbcopy

in ElasticSearch

POST sites/_delete_by_query
{
    "query" : { 
        "match_all" : {}
    }
}
PUT sites/_bulk
{"index":{}}
{"station":"01010","position":[]....}
{"index":{}}
{"station":"02000","position":[]....}

Site Suggestion Process

The Google Forms responses are all saved in a Google Sheets document and a Apps Script function runs for each new response which formats the data and posts it as a new comment to the GitHub issue.

It might be a good idea to upload the script somewhere...

I also wrote this a few months ago which goes into some more details: https://lukeprior.github.io/blog/posts/sondehub-suggestions/

The GitHub issue comments have a different formart depending on whether they are for a new site suggestion or existing site modification.

All issues will include a map with the proposed location which can be used as a quick sanity check.

For existing sites I have included the entry in a code block for reference.

The suggested code should be correct in most cases and is generated by the Apps Script using the provided values. (have to manually do some times if non standard and obscure radiosonde types)

If it's a modification I also attempt to show the difference between the two outputs which is handy to quickly check.

So once I've verified that the changes/suggestion seem valid I take the output from View suggested.

The OpenSearch Dashboard (https://github.com/projecthorus/sondehub-infra/wiki/ElasticSearch-Kibana-access#access) is used to update/modify the site list.

Open the Discover page and select the sites dataset, also open the Dev Tools page.

For the site that needs updating find its entry on the Discover page by creating a filter on the station ID. Then copy the _id for it.

To upload a new entry to dataset the following command is used in Dev Tools

https://es.v2.sondehub.org/_dashboards/app/dev_tools#/console

POST sites/_doc
{
    "station": "72659",
    "station_name": "Aberdeen, Aberdeen Regional Airport (United States)",
    "position": [
      -98.4133,
      45.4556
    ],
    "alt": 396,
    "rs_types": [
      "54"
    ],
    "times": [
      "0:00:00",
      "1:12:00"
    ],
    "burst_altitude": 34000
  }

Then the upload can be verified by refreshing the Discover page and checking that two entries exist when finally the old version can be deleted by using the following command in Dev Tools with the _id.

DELETE sites/_doc/T9lAXoMBCj_oAeeec47q

Radiosonde Frequencies

Radiosonde frequencies can be included in the rs_types entry as follows:

    "rs_types": [
      ["54", "403.610"]
    ],