new CCT C-13 entry for long-duration balloon observations

[jbathegit]

NOAA/NWS has begun purchasing long-duration balloon data from the private company WindBorne. The data is BUFR format and is similar in nature to radiosonde and dropsonde data, in that it contains measurements of pressure, GPS height, temperature, moisture, and winds at a number of vertical levels, and with a unique time and lat/long reported as well for each vertical level.

However, and unlike for radiosondes and dropsondes, a single balloon may stay aloft for days or even weeks at a time, constantly ascending and descending as guided remotely from a ground site. Furthermore, a single ascent or descent can last much longer than for a typical radiosonde or dropsonde, so instead of issuing a full report once an ascent or descent is complete (i.e. each BUFR message containing one BUFR data subset with delayed replication of multiple levels), numerous levels of this data will instead be continuously and successively accumulated and disseminated as separate BUFR data subsets after a certain threshold of time or vertical distance has elapsed. So for this long-duration balloon data, each BUFR message will contain multiple compressed data subsets, each containing all of the data at a single vertical level during a certain time or vertical distance interval. And in that sense each report will end up being more akin to a single-level data report in BUFR Data Category 4, with receiving centers needing to locally re-assemble reports from multiple BUFR messages if they later wish to view all of the data from a full ascent or descent period of any balloon.

The data is planned to be disseminated with allowed sharing by all global NWP centers. However, the data is not fully free and open and therefore may not be shared with any private or commercial entities outside of global NWP centers. In preparation for this new type of data, we would like to request a new entry in Common Code Table C-13, as noted below.

Amendment details

COMMON CODE TABLE C-13: Data subcategories of BUFR Table A data categories

Category Code	Category Meaning	Subcategory Code	Subcategory Meaning
4	Single level upper-air data (other than satellite)	3	Long-duration balloon

Comments

No response

Requestor(s)

Jeff Ator (NOAA)

Stakeholder(s)

Enter list of stakeholder(s).

Publication(s)

Example: Manual on Codes (WMO-No. 306), Volume I.2, Common Code Table C-13

Expected impact of change

None

Collaborators

No response

References

No response

Validation

No response

[amilan17]

https://github.com/wmo-im/CCT/wiki/Teleconference.16.May.2024 notes:
Jeff introduced the proposal;

[amilan17]

https://github.com/wmo-im/CCT/wiki/Teleconference.2024.June.4and5 notes:
waiting for CGMS confirmation after 14 June

[jbathegit]

https://github.com/wmo-im/CCT/wiki/Teleconference.2024.June.4and5 notes: waiting for CGMS confirmation after 14 June

@amilan17 CGMS doesn't need to comment on this one (for one thing, it's not even satellite-related :-) So this one is already good to go.

The issue that we're waiting until 14 June for CGMS confirmation is #195

[amilan17]

oops! too many notes too fast. :)

[jbathegit]

The development branch has now been updated

[amilan17]

https://github.com/wmo-im/CCT/wiki/Teleconference.24and26.June.2024 notes:
branch is updated and ready for validation