The CHUAS is a network of ten upper-air stations covering the
Caribbean region. These stations supply observations to NOAA's
National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the national hydrometeorological
service (NHMS) of each participating Caribbean country in support of
its hurricane forecasting activities andto provide data sets for
research. Bilateral agreements between NOAA and the NHMSs were
established as early as 1969. The terms of each agreement vary, but
the basics include provision of equipment, spare parts and
expendables, and assistance with major maintenance and training.
All of these agreements are currently undergoing review and willbe updated.
These stations are located on the Caribbean islands of Bahamas,
Barbados, Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles), Dominican Republic, Grand
Cayman, Jamaica, San Andres (Columbia), St. Maarten (Netherlands
Antilles), Trinidad, and in the Central American country of Belize;
adding Saint Marin Guadeloupe.
The NWS Maintenance Branch supports the CHUAS network with technical
maintenance support, both by telephone consultation and on site, and
provides the day-to-day operational supplies of radiosondes and
balloons.
These upper-air observations are made by balloon-borne
electronic-instrument packages, which are carried aloft to an altitude
of nearly 20 miles. Observations are usually made at midnight
(UniversalTime), although during a portion of the hurricane season,
additional observations are made (see table below). Similar
observations are made at hundreds of locations around the world as
part of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Upper-Air
Network (GUAN).
The birth of the CHUAS network occurred during the late 1950's and
early 1960's. At that time, theNWS supported a Polar Operations
Project, which installed and operated many upper air stations
inCanada, Alaska, the Arctic, and Antarctica. Stations were also
established in Mexico, many South and Central American countries, and
on several Caribbean Islands.
Formal agreements with the nine Caribbean countries to support the
upper-air stations were establishedduring the period 1969 - 1985. In
addition to providing equipment, spare parts and expendables, many of
the CHUAS stations required an on site U.S. technician for maintenance
and administration. These agreements are currently being updated to
reflect the current bilateral relationship.
Originally, most of these stations used old World War II-era
military-surplus ground-receiving equipment– an SCR 658, which was a
radio-direction finder used to track the balloons carrying the
radiosondes. The SCR-658 required manual tracking of the balloon's
flight and several highly trained people to calculate the wind and
other data. Balloons were filled by hydrogen produced by a variety of
high- and low-pressure gas generators. These generators were somewhat
dangerous to operate and had environmentally unsound waste products.
During the 1970's, the NWS Overseas Operations Division upgraded many
of these stations tosurplus U.S. Air Force equipment (the GMD-5 system
built by Space Data Division), which provided for automatic tracking
of the balloons' flight. Calculations were still done by manual
operations. Electrolytic hydrogen generators, which produce hydrogen
by passing electricity through water to separate the hydrogen and
oxygen, replaced the older high- and low-pressure chemical generators.
In addition, U. S. personnel returned home as the stations' capacity
for self maintenance and administration improved.
In the 1980's, the NWS IAO provided computer equipment to perform the
majority of the calculations allowing for complete operation by one
highly skilled operator. Some ground-receiving equipment was updated
to solid-state technology, and all sites were provided with IBM PC's
to do the calculations and message-coding operations. Also, the
countries became more self reliant in terms of operational and
maintenance responsibilities. All stations were fully manned by local
national personnel by the end of the 1980's.
In the early 1990's, the GMD equipment was replaced with modern
computer-based tracking equipment using the OMEGA navigation-beacon
network for upper-air wind determination. With the demise (September
1997) of the OMEGA navigation network, two of these stations, Jamaica
andBahamas, were converted to use the Loran-C beacon network while the
other five stations were replaced with ATIR CV-700 equipment (modern,
solid state GMD-like tracking systems).
In the early 2000's, the day-to-dayresponsibilities for maintenance
and operation of CHUAS were transferred to the NWS Maintenance Branch
.
Beginning in 2002, the old Stuart electrolytic hydrogen generators
were replaced by more modern proton-exchange systems provided by
Proton Energy Systems of Wallingford, CT.
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