Datenpaket: Dropsonde observations of the KITsonde system on HALO during NAWDIC 2026 (Level 1), v1.0

This dataset contains quality-controlled observation data (Level 1) of dropsondes released from the High Altitude Long Range aircraft HALO over the North Atlantic during 15 research flights of the NAWDIC campaign in January and February 2026 (including a scientific test flight in December 2025). Between two and four measurement sondes are released simultaneously in one KITsonde release container, each sonde measuring vertical profiles of meteorological variables (air temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction). The sondes are equipped with differently sized parachutes (named A, B, C, and D) that determine their fall velocity, whereas A denotes the largest parachute (slowest sonde) and D the smallest parachute (fastest sonde). The release containers are numbered sequentially between 001 and 127. Each NetCDF file (127 in total) contains the observations of all sondes released in one container (dimensions time and sonde). The file name indicates the number of the research flight (RF), the number of the release container, and the corresponding parachute sizes (e.g., ABCD) as well as date and time of the release. The data set also contains empty files in cases of signal loss or failure of the release container to document all releases. The typical release altitude of the dropsondes is around 8 km and the temporal resolution of the measurements is 1 s.