The DOW Facility owns and operates five GRAW radiosonde launch systems and can deploy as many launch teams in the field. Each launch system consists of a receiver, laptop, antenna and balloon filling station. Deployment of launch teams is highly adaptable to scientific objectives. Teams can be posted to stationary positions in or around the target domain, co-located with DOW radars, or attached to mobile mesonet vehicles for stationary or mobile deployments.

Sounding systems have been requested and used in multiple major research projects including PECAN, MASCRAD, GRAINEX and RELAMPAGO. In one year (2018), the facility launched a total of 1,155 soundings between projects GRAINEX and RELAMPAGO. A comprehensive data quality control begins as soon as the raw sounding data arrives from the field.