The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN) and its Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper-Air Network (GRUAN) is an international reference observing network, built on existing observational facilities, carrying out ground-based remote sensing and airborne in situ atmospheric observations of essential climate variables. GRUAN’s core principle is to ensure the comprehensive traceability of measurements and uncertainties, wherever possible to SI units.

Spanning the atmosphere from surface to stratosphere, long-term high-quality GRUAN data are key to climate monitoring and atmospheric studies. They are being used, for example, to diagnose trends in more spatially complete datasets, including satellite observations, and to validate, calibrate, or constrain independent instruments and numerical models.

Recently, GRUAN has achieved major landmarks with the transition from Vaisala RS92 to RS41 radiosondes, the release of a new data product for the Meisei RS-11G radiosonde, and the introduction of two new sites (Kowloon, Hong Kong and Dakar, Senegal) bringing the total number of sites across the network to 30.

To mark these achievements, the open-access journal Atmosphere is hosting a Topical Issue to showcase current and future capability, latest products and developments, and latest science. Original results, review papers, and GRUAN-relevant studies and applications are all welcome contributions.

Dr. Fabien Carminati
Dr. Ruud Dirksen
Dr. Giada Alessandroni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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