Below are plots of SYNOP/BUOY/radiosonde BUFR coverage for May August 2022 - reports as decoded at ECMWF, some reports not in standard BUFR are not decoded. Daily coverage of BUFR reports (updated automatically) is available from the Monitoring Maps. See also timeseries and maps from the NWP system: Monitoring of Conventional observations and WDQMS: https://wdqms.wmo.int .
...
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Purple: BUFR reports but no TAC, Red *: position error. Light/dark blue indicates that there are less/more than 60% of the reports available in BUFR.)
BUOY coverage
On 6 June 2016 ECMWF started passively monitoring BUFR BUOY data in its operational system, assimilation of pressure data started in July 2016, many alphanumeric (FM18) reports ceased on 2 November 2016. For drifting buoys the BUFR feed is complete now helped by the fact that fewer data producers are involved (there are still 12 Indian moored buoys reporting only in FM18 as at mid-2021). In mid-2016 there were 51 pressure-reporting buoys reporting in BUFR but not in FM18, some of these were moored buoys including 7 PIRATA or RAMA buoys which also report subsurface temperature and salinity. Template 315008 is used for moored buoys and 315009 for drifting buoys. More details of the marine data can be found in the Marine and ocean observations pages (one issue is the move from 5-digit to 7-digit identifiers, this means that some newer buoys cannot really be coded using FM18). In December 2018 NOAA moored buoys started reporting in the correct 315008 template (they are mainly close to the US coast, but a few are further offshore). Moored buoys from Canada and the UK still report in SHIP format and are not shown in the plot below. Note that about half the buoys, shown in light blue, do not report pressure (especially those in the tropical Pacific and the Mediterranean, they are deployed to measure SST and currents). In the second quarter of 2019 we started receiving moored buoy data for the North American Great Lakes, but there is a complication in that they report both Pmsl and Pstn (marine TAC reports only contained Pmsl), but don't give the height of Pstn.
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Dark blue - BUFR reports including pressure, Light blue - BUFR reports without pressure. Circles/triangles - drifting/moored buoys.)
Ship data
In 2017/18 a number of European ships started using new EUCAWS hardware and software. They report (with identifier EUC*) in BUFR only. French TAC ship reports ceased in mid-January 2020. Some NMSs (most recently DWD - Germany) have stopped sending alphanumeric reports.
...
Most Argo reports are available in BUFR, with higher vertical resolution. Argo buoys stoped reporting in the alphanumeric TESAC code on 1 July 2018.
Radiosonde coverage
About 85% 86% of stations report some BUFR, about 73% 75% report native BUFR with roughly 10% 9% reporting reformatted TEMP (see below). The proportion of native high-resolution reports is growing in fits and starts, recently in the USA (2017), Japan (July 2018), Chile+Argentia (2018), Brazil (2019 - incomplete) and some Russian stations (late 2018/2019) - this pushed the % with native reports over 50% in the second quarter of 2019. In October 2019 most Chinese stations started providing low-resolution native BUFR reports and most Chinese TAC radiosonde reports stopped in mid-January 2020. In 2021 the resolution at Chinese stations improved to about 200 levels at a few stations, then all Chinese stations at the start of June. A few Indian stations started providing high-resolution reports in 2020, but this has been erratic. In 2022 there have been a few more high-resolution reports from the USA and Caribbean. A small proportion of BUFR reports are incomplete (eg data above 100 hPa missing). Reports from the ASAP ships are now only available in BUFR format (most ASAPs changed identifier in late 2017). As of late 2019 stations in Finland, Norway, Sweden and France no longer provide alphanumeric reports, plus scattered stations elsewhere. About 10 European countries are now sending radiosonde descent data in BUFR (not shown). There was a dearth of radiosonde reports from West Africa in late-April/May 2019 but this recovered somewhat by June 2019.
...
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Purple: BUFR reports but no TAC, Red *: position error. Blue: both BUFR and TAC, light blue indicates fewer ascents in BUFR. Triangle - ship report, X - wind-only report.)
The plot below distinguishes native BUFR (stations reporting valid radiosonde drift positions): high/low resolution (dark/light blue, using 300 level threshold) from reformatted TEMP (orange). There are now high resolution reports from all continents.
Almost all reformatted TEMP reports are sent as separate parts (A/B/C/D), this is contrary to the BUFR coding rules (there should be a single report containing data for the whole ascent) and reformatted TEMP reports are regarded as unusable by ECMWF and most other NWP centres. BUFR reports generated directly from the radiosonde raw data are much better.
...