Identification

Title

Targeted dropwindsondes in complex terrain

Abstract

The dropwindsonde (or dropsonde) is a frequently utilized tool in geophysical research and its use over ocean and flat terrain is a reliable and well-established practice. Its use in complex terrain, however, is complicated by signal acquisition challenges that can be directly related to the ground target location, local relief, and line of sight to flight tracks relevant to the observation sought. This note describes a straightforward technique to calculate the theoretical altitude above ground to which a ground-targeted dropsonde will provide data for a given airborne platform. It is found that this height HCq can be calculated from expected airborne platform horizontal velocity Uag, mean dropwindsonde vertical velocity Ws, the relevant barrier maximum HB, and the horizontal distance from the target area to the barrier maximum DB. Here, HCq is found to be weakly dependent on release altitude through Ws. An example from the Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX) is used to show that for modern aircraft platforms and dropwindsondes signal loss can occur 1–2 km above ground if mitigation is not pursued. Practical mitigation techniques are described for those complex terrain cases where signal propagation problems would create a significant negative scientific impact.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7474b3s

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-08-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2007 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact