Improved Humidity Measurements with a Redesigned Radiosonde Humidity Duct

Abstract

A modification to the radiosonde humidity channel to eliminate a temperature induced bias is described. Data are presented from Right test comparisons of radiosondes so modified and standard unmodified radiosondes. It is anticipated that the redesign of the current, standard radiosondes will reflect essentially the modifications described herein and consequently the data indicate the type and magnitude of change in the reported humidifies which may be expected. The data are essentially in agreement with predicted changes from a previous paper (Morrissey and Brousaides. 1970). Further field testing of this and other modifications is proposed to determine residual error. Similar tests to standard instrumentation would permit corrections to archived data.