PILOT reports collected by the Met Office MetDB System

PILOT reports describe measurements reported up to four times daily by radiosondes at worldwide fixed land stations. The dataset contains measurements of wind speed and direction. The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km and measurements are usually taken every 2 seconds. These data are provided as-is from the Met Office and so will need the message components bringing together for each ascent

The PILOT data contain the following observations:

Wind speed at standard pressure levels

Vertical wind shear

Maximum wind level

The data comprise vertical profiles of temperature, dew-point temperature, wind speed and wind direction at standard and significant pressure levels. The standard pressure levels are 850, 700, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 70, 50, 30, 20 and 10 hPa. Significant pressure levels are calculated according to the Met Office criteria and constitute levels at which significant events occur in the profile, e.g temperature inversions.

The data are measured from the surface to approximately 20-30 km. Generally there are up to 4 ascents per day from each station, though some sites may only have 1 or 2 ascents. Ascent times are typically around 00, 06, 12 and 18 UT.

A maximum wind level is defined as a level at which the wind speed is greater than that observed immediately above and below that level..

Date (Publication): 2008-08-10T14:16:28

Date (Creation): 2008-08-10T14:16:28

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/f8a0c65bf187284f8b103673ed0fcb44

Citation identifier: NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC) / f8a0c65bf187284f8b103673ed0fcb44

Point of contact

Organisation name	Electronic mail address	Role
Met Office	enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	Author
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)	badc@rl.ac.uk	Custodian
Met Office	enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	Owner
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)	badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor
Met Office	enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	Principal investigator
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)	badc@rl.ac.uk	pointofContact
Met Office	enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	pointofContact
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)	badc@rl.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Continual

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

Met Office
MetDB
PILOT
profiles
meteorology

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: These data have multiple licences for different applications. Always make sure to read the appropriate licence for full data usage limitations details. Other usage may not be permitted. Restricted data: please submit an application using the REQUEST ACCESS link for access.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/ukmo_agreement.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under academic use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/ukmo_agreement_gov.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under policy use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 2009-04-30T23:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data availability and file format The data are held in the BADC-CSV file format, each of which will contain one or more data records and are comma separated variables. "Metadata" are provided giving a full description of the content of the data. More information about the file format can be found on the BADC-CSV format page, which also contains two example files taken from the MetDB dataset.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/f8a0c65bf187284f8b103673ed0fcb44	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/ukmo-metdb/raw/pilot	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/surface/code.html	Details of the WMO Meteorological codes used at weather observing stations (daily and hourly weather) explain the codes used in this dataset.

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/e/a/No._13_-_Upper_Air_Measurements.pdf	The Met office Fact Sheet #13 – Upper Air Observations gives further information as to the data collected by radiosondes

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Data are extracted from the Met Office's "metDB" system and supplied to BADC. These are then processed to generate BADC-CSV files, where possible. METARS and CLIMAT message types are stored as original message types only within http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/ukmo-metdb/raw

Metadata

File identifier: f8a0c65bf187284f8b103673ed0fcb44 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: Met Office MetDB system: Surface, upper air and satellite data
8ee156b6ed41b153e85dbf02a4134513

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-03-11T03:01:42

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Point of contact

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Metadata

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