9. Upperair Obs and Plotting

At least twice a day, at stations all over the world, radiosondes are launched to report in situ measurements of temperature and moisture at different pressures in order to allow meteorologists to know what atmospheric conditions are above the surface. As a result of these launches there are a number of standard plots that are created. The maps represent the quasi-horizontal pressure surfaces (e.g., 850, 700, 500, 300, 250 hPa) where everywhere on the map the pressure is the same; however, the height at which the pressure is at varies greatly. Like the surface station model, we plot a lot of information around the upper-air station model.