A Java program that visualizes a vertical profile of the atmosphere as a skew-T diagram, a hodograph, and a set of readouts such as CAPE, storm-relative helicity, and wind shear. Exists both as a standalone program and as an API.

!! Program now features irreversible adiabatic and entraining parcels. Press I while looking at a sounding to switch between irreversible adiabatic and psuedoadiabatic ascent and E to toggle entrainment. !!

To download, follow instructions at https://github.com/a-urq/sounding-viewer-java/releases/tag/v1.4.0.

Be advised that integration with IGRA2 soundings from outside of the US is currently not well tested and has had issues in the past. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

These dependencies are only needed if you are downloading the source code. If you are downloading the release JAR file, you do not need to worry about installing these libraries.

joda-time

WeatherUtils (https://github.com/a-urq/weather-utils-java)

Double-click the JAR file or run it in your command prompt or terminal with no arguments and follow the dialog boxes.

Run the JAR file in your command prompt or terminal using arguments. The arguments to be used are documented below.

-c: Specifies that the program should pull current data. This argument should always be used first.

-h: Specifies that the program should pull historical data. This argument should always be used first.

-s: Indicates that the following argument specifies a radiosonde site. The codes for each site can be found in the IGRA2 station list or on the SPC Experimental Soundings page.

-d: For historical data, specifies that the following argument is a date. The format YYYYMMDD-HH should be used. Always use UTC time.

If you want to get the current sounding for Fort Worth, Texas, type java -jar RadiosondeViewer.jar -c -s KFWD.

If you want to get the historical sounding for Norman, Oklahoma on February 27, 2022 at 03Z, type java -jar RadiosondeViewer.jar -h -s KOUN -d 20230227-03.

Include the JAR file in your project's build path. It is the same JAR file as the GUI and the CLI.

First, select a radiosonde site with RadiosondeSite.findSite(String code);, where the codes for each site can be found in the IGRA2 station list or on the SPC Experimental Soundings page.

To get a current sounding from within the Contiguous US, use RadiosondeWrapper.displaySpcExperSounding(RadiosondeSite site) and the program will display the most current sounding from the SPC Experimental Soundings page.

To get a historical sounding from anywhere in the world, use RadiosondeWrapper.displaySounding(RadiosondeSite site, int year, int month, int day, int hour) and the program will display the sounding from that site at either that time or the closest time found near the requested time. If no sounding is found, the method will throw a RadiosondeNotFoundException so you may write your own error handling. No specific error handling is needed, but it gives the programmer the option to show a GUI dialog box, a console message, or any other handling.

Step 1: Enter your data into arrays of type double[] using SI units. Currently, the needed arrays are pressure, height, temperature, dewpoint, zonal (east-west) wind, and meridional (north-south) wind. Vertical velocity may be included but is optional. Enter your data in the arrays in order of increasing pressure. The lowest pressure (highest altitude) record should be contained in the first index of each array and the highest pressure (lowest altitude) record should be contained in the last index.

Take care not to use relative humidity in the dewpoint array. If you need, WeatherUtils.relativeHumidity(double temperature, double dewpoint) can convert your data.

Vertical velocity uses pressure coordinates rather than vertical distance directly, in accordance with the conventions of display used in other visualizers such as SharpPY. Ensure that your data is in units of Pa s^-1 instead of m s^-1. Positive values should correspond with downward motion and negative values should correspond with upward motion.

Step 2: Create a Sounding object using those arrays.

Step 3: Create a SoundingFrame object using that Sounding object and optionally additional information. This will show a window displaying the sounding chart.

int numRecords = ...; // Number of records in your sounding data.

double[] pressure = new double[numRecords]; // Units: Pascals
double[] height = new double[numRecords]; // Units: Meters (both Above Sea Level and Above Ground Level will work)
double[] temperature = new double[numRecords]; // Units: Kelvins
double[] dewpoint = new double[numRecords]; // Units: Kelvins
double[] uWind = new double[numRecords]; // Units: m s^-1
double[] vWind = new double[numRecords]; // Units: m s^-1
double[] omega = new double[numRecords]; // Units: Pa s^-1, may be omitted if data is not present

// your code for entering the data into the arrays goes here
// remember to enter the lowest pressure (highest altitude) data in the first index and the highest pressure (lowest altitude) data in the last index.

Sounding sounding = new Sounding(pressure, temperature, dewpoint, height, uWind, vWind, omega);
new SoundingFrame(sounding);

Alternatively, you can enter additional data into your sounding frame, which affects the title of the window. All following combinations work.

DateTime time = new DateTime(2023, 05, 19, 00, 0, DateTimeZone.UTC);

new SoundingFrame(sounding, time);

new SoundingFrame(sounding, 35.2331, -101.7092);

new SoundingFrame(sounding, time, 35.2331, -101.7092);

new SoundingFrame("Amarillo TX Weather Balloon", sounding);

new SoundingFrame("Amarillo TX Weather Balloon", sounding, time);

new SoundingFrame("Amarillo TX Weather Balloon", sounding, 35.2331, -101.7092);

new SoundingFrame("Amarillo TX Weather Balloon", sounding, time, 35.2331, -101.7092);

I have also made a MapInset interface that allows for a map to be shown in the upper-rightmost frame. RadarView uses it to display radar data near the sounding to give context for the storm's environment. I plan to write a guide on how to use that interface later on.

A few weeks before the time of writing, my Atmospheric Circulations class covered the Thermal Wind Equation. It's a fairly complicated equation to wrap your head around, but in short, you can relate the change in wind speed and direction with altitude (in more technical terms, the wind shear vector) with the temperature gradient. Using that temperature gradient from the Thermal Wind Equation, you can factor in the wind speed to calculate the inferred temperature advection.

It is not an exact method of determining advection, but it is very useful in cases where you have no direct measurements of the temperature gradient, such as weather balloon data.

I have used the Thermal Wind Equation to create an Inferred Temperature Advection plot on my sounding charts. In this example, you can see a layer of Warm Air Advection in Southwest Kansas.