SUBJECT:        Monthly Raob Data Report of Manual Quality Control


The Raob Report for April, compiled from the Raob Recap statements in the
SDM logs, which does not necessarily include data that were rejected by
automated computer generated quality control, indicates the following:

(1)  Reports from 34 U.S. stations (Blocks 72 and 74) were cited at least
once; 16 were cited at least twice; and 6 were cited at least three times.
Of those, the following were cited more than three times or had two or more no
reports:

                    STATION__ DEL BAS COR XRP EFL SHO TOTAL
                    72662/UNR   1               5        6
                    72214/TAE                   4        4
                    72215/FFC                   4        4
                    74455/DVN   2                   2    4

There were no significant issues in Group 1 during April.  Manual deletions
were few with no more than two at any station and usually involved super-
adiabatic lapse rates within rather shallow layers.


(2)  Reports from 38 stations in blocks 04, 70, 71, 76, 78 and 91 were cited
at least once; 20 were cited at least twice; and 16 were cited at least three
times.  Of those, the following were cited more than three times or had two or
more no reports:

                    STATION__ DEL BAS COR XRP EFL SHO TOTAL
                    76458/MZT                  40       40
                    76654/MZL   1              37       38
                    70361/YAK                  12       12
                    70414/SYA                   5        5
                    71906/YVP   2                   2    4
                    76743/VHA   2               1   1    4
                    78073/NAS   4                        4
                    91348/PNI                   4   1    4*

Manual deletions of any Group 2 data during April were due mostly to super-
adiabatic lapse rates.  A few stations reported chronic or long-duration
equipment outages or shortages.  Not indicated above, 70231/MCG preempted 00Z
raobs most of April, and 70133/OTZ launched only on an as-needed basis, as
directed by Alaska Region management, in effort to conserve helium gas which
became in short supply.  


* The total differs from the sum of the itemized citations
  because of multiple citations in the same raob(s).


Citation Codes Key:
DEL  All or part of the raob was flagged for deletion.
BAS  A baseline hgt/station press error was corrected or purged.
COR  At least one correction other than baseline was made.
XRP  Station sent no report at all when one was required.
EFL  Equipment failure (codes 10142, 10144, 10158, etc.)
SHO  Raob flight was short; ie, to less than 400 mb.


This and related reports are available on the Web at . . .
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/sib/qap/raobqc/