The upper air data set, in particular the temperature and humidity records, are known to need sizeable bias adjustments to fulfil the accuracy demands of future reanalyses. Upper air wind data are subject to occasional bias adjustments as well. Such adjustments have been developed within EU FP7 projects ERA-CLIM and ERA-CLIM2 and it is expected to improve those once again while developing the Service. Particular emphasis will be given to adjusting also shorter records since those would otherwise compete with adjusted records, thereby reducing the overall effect of the adjustments on reanalyses.
The uncertainties of these adjustments will be continuously assessed, by comparing them with independent surface and satellite data after 1979 but also by comparing them with the satellite data to be rescued and processed as described in Lot1 of this ITT. These will complement standard uncertainty estimates from reanalysis departure statistics. An additional method of uncertainty assessment is the comparison with historic radiosonde intercomparison (RI) experiments. There is a sizeable number of reports about those back to the early 1950s. The intercomparisons are generally better documented compared to contemporaneous standards. Yet the data are spread over different places, are often not available in digital form or have not been compared against reanalyses so far. Given the lack of independent reference data those data seem highly valuable for uncertainty estimation.
The upper air data, together with their bias adjustments, will be actively managed and backed up and are therefore resilient to software problems, data corruption, and hardware failure. Source codes, configuration and content will be kept under version control, and will be maintained for the duration of the Service at the highest standards available. The software, including the bias adjustment software, will be made available publicly, such that it can be potentially maintained with relatively little effort after the end of the project. The SM and his deputy will register in the C3S user support system to be able to help with queries also after the end of this contract. The Service will produce annual implementation reports of the state of upper air data supplying information about progress, needs, gaps and priorities.