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Below are plots of SYNOP/BUOY/radiosonde BUFR coverage for December 2016 February 2017 - reports as decoded at ECMWF, some reports not in standard BUFR are not decoded.
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(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, many alphanumeric (FM18) reports ceased on 2 November 2016. For drifting buoys the BUFR feed is almost complete now helped by the fact that fewer data producers are involved (there are about 20 Indian and a few Japanese drifting buoys not using the approved template as yet). 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 E-SURFMAR 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). The plot below does not include the moored buoys that currently report in TM13 (SHIP) code - at some point these will start using the 315008 template. 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).
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Dark blue - BUFR reports including pressure, Light blue - BUFR reports without pressure. Circles/triangles - drifting/moored buoys.)
Radiosonde coverage
Almost 70% of stations report in BUFR, about 25% 28% report native BUFR with roughly 45% reporting reformatted TEMP (see "structure" page and plots below). The proportion of native reports is gradually growing and the proportion of stations making high resolution reports has now crept up to 20% (with improvements from the UK, Korea and Poland during 2016a recent contribution from Chile). Reports may be incomplete (eg data above 100 hPa missing). Reports from the ASAP ships are now only available in BUFR format. A smattering of other stations (green dots on the map, these include 17607, Cyprus; 33008; Belarus; 47115, Korea and two Mexican stations) are BUFR only, one or two of these are new to the GTS and never reported in TEMP code.
(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). High resolution reports come mainly from European and Australian stations.
