Abstract
This article describes a system to provide standard atmospheric soundings in remote oceanic regions. Deployed from an aircraft, the expendable unit descends to within 15 m of the ocean surface on a parachute and then releases a 500-g balloon and rawinsonde that transmits sounding data to a receiver aboard the host aircraft. The system has been used routinely to obtain soundings over remote tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans in support of air force and navy systems test programs since 1987.
