This is archived by measuring the frequency shift of the base signals, much as Doppler radar provides the speed of various objects. A base station, which monitors the dropwindsonde, may be on board the aircraft that launched the sondde. A moving platform can be used since the timing of sognals at the sonde does not depend on the motion of the base station. These sensors include radiosonde sensors and lidar. There are hopes to widely use sensors carried on commercial aircraft to provide global water vapor measurement coverage.
Aircrafts sample the data at various rate.
The sampling is controlled by the on-board computer system which also displays the data in real time in graphic and alphanumeric formats while recording them on magnetic tape. The data can also be telemetered to a ground station and displayed in real time, or data may be telemetered from the ground to the aircraft. The data system is based on a project-customized windows system to allow flexibility in data acquisition and instrumentation in order to accomodate specific research demands.