About the app
Soundings is an upper-air analysis app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The sidebar lists sample soundings, imported files, and stations you have loaded. Select an item to see its profile, hodograph, and convective indices.
Open a sounding file
Select Open File to open a sounding file on your device. Soundings supports these formats:
- Wyoming text
- WMO TEMP code
- BUFR
If a BUFR file contains multiple soundings, the app adds each one to the sidebar. It then selects the last sounding in the file.
Get station data
Select Load Stations to get the station list. When the list appears, select a station in the sidebar to load its latest available sounding.
You can change the server URL in Settings. The app uses the SoundingViewer API to get upper-air data. Soundings processes that data on your device.
Read the sounding
The profile shows how temperature and dewpoint change with height. Use it to find dry layers and inversions. You can also compare moisture depth and lapse rates.
When the data is available, Soundings shows the station ID, WMO ID, location, and number of profile levels.
Read the hodograph
If a sounding includes wind speed and direction, Soundings shows a hodograph beside the profile. The hodograph shows how the wind changes with height. Use it to examine wind shear and changes in wind direction.
If the sounding has no usable wind data, Soundings hides the hodograph. You can still read the profile and available indices.
Use the convective indices
The indices panel shows severe-weather values calculated from the selected sounding.
The thermodynamic values include SBCAPE, MUCAPE, MLCAPE, SBCIN, MLCIN, LCL, LFC, EL, lifted index, DCAPE, ECAPE, PWAT, and convective temperature.
If wind data is available, the panel also shows wind-related values. These include effective inflow layer, effective SRH, 0-1 km SRH, 0-3 km SRH, effective bulk shear, 0-6 km shear, and Bunkers storm motion. It also shows composite values such as SCP, STP, SHIP, Derecho Composite, EHI, and large-hail composite.
Troubleshooting
If a file does not open, check that it is in Wyoming text, WMO TEMP, or BUFR format.
If stations do not load, open Settings and check the server URL. Check your network connection too.
If the hodograph or wind-related indices are missing, check whether the sounding includes wind data.