Radiosondelike

Radiosondelike is an adjective used in meteorology and atmospheric science to describe instrumentation, data products, or measurement approaches that resemble the outputs or functions of a radiosonde but are not specific to traditional balloon-borne sondes. The term derives from radiosonde, the instrument package launched by weather balloons to record temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind as a function of altitude, and the suffix -like indicating resemblance.

Radiosondelike systems may include ground-based remote sensing, aircraft- or drone-mounted sensor packages, or portable instruments that produce vertical profiles of atmospheric properties by methods such as lidar, microwave radiometry, or tethered platforms. Typical capabilities include profiling of temperature, humidity, pressure, wind, and sometimes trace gases, with retrieval algorithms converting measurements into altitude-resolved profiles. However, radiosondelike devices may not physically ascend using a free balloon; they simulate or substitute ascent through alternative platforms or data fusion.

Applications encompass calibration and validation of remote sensing products, initialization and verification of numerical weather prediction models, field campaigns, and climate research. They are often used when a traditional radiosonde launch is impractical or when continuous, higher-temporal-resolution data are required.

Differences from radiosondes include platform and data-collection methods, altitude range, and sampling frequency. Radiosondes provide in situ measurements during ascent, whereas radiosondelike approaches may rely on remote sensing, UAVs, or other retrieval techniques to achieve similar atmospheric profiles.

See also: Radiosonde, Atmospheric profiling, Remote sensing, Lidar wind profiler.