Overview
Soundings is an upper-air analysis app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It displays loaded soundings in a split-view interface: the sidebar lists built-in samples, imported files, and loaded stations; the detail view shows the selected profile, hodograph, and convective indices.
Open a Sounding File
Use Open File to import a local sounding file. The app tries the common upper-air formats used by SoundingsFramework:
- Wyoming text
- WMO TEMP code
- BUFR
For BUFR files that contain more than one sounding, the app adds each decoded sounding to the loaded list and selects the last one.
Load Station Data
Use Load Stations to request the station catalog from the configured backend. After stations load, choose a station in the sidebar to fetch its latest sounding.
The backend URL is configurable from Settings. The app is currently wired for the SoundingViewer API, which stores raw upper-air text and lets the app parse it locally through SoundingsFramework.
Read the Profile
The profile view plots the vertical temperature and dewpoint structure of the atmosphere. Use it to compare moisture depth, dry layers, inversions, lapse rates, and the vertical structure feeding storms.
Each selected sounding also shows station metadata when available, including station identifier, WMO ID, latitude/longitude, and the number of levels in the profile.
Read the Hodograph
When the sounding includes wind direction and speed, Soundings shows a hodograph beside the profile. The hodograph plots how wind changes with height and helps identify shear, curvature, and storm-mode support.
If the loaded sounding has no wind data, the app hides the hodograph and focuses on the thermodynamic profile and available indices.
Use Convective Indices
The indices panel summarizes severe-weather parameters from the selected sounding.
Thermodynamic values include SBCAPE, MUCAPE, MLCAPE, SBCIN, MLCIN, LCL, LFC, EL, lifted index, DCAPE, ECAPE, PWAT, and convective temperature.
When wind data is present, the app also shows kinematic and composite values such as effective inflow layer, effective SRH, 0-1 km SRH, 0-3 km SRH, effective bulk shear, 0-6 km shear, Bunkers storm motion, SCP, STP, SHIP, Derecho Composite, EHI, and large-hail composite.
Troubleshooting
If a file does not import, confirm that it is a sounding file in Wyoming text, WMO TEMP, or BUFR format.
If station loading fails, open Settings and confirm the backend URL. The app needs network access to load the station catalog and latest station soundings.
If the hodograph or kinematic indices are missing, the selected sounding likely does not include usable wind data.