Wind Profiling with a GPS Radiosonde - Preliminary Test Results

Alison Brown, Ernest E. Fisher, Glen Boire

Abstract:	The current transponder-based, upper air tracking systems used to characterize the atmosphere are both expensive to maintain and unable to meet future requirements for wind profiling. The Wes- tern Range at Vandenberg AFB, on the central California coast, requires accurate wind profiling to support launches of polar satellites into orbit, ballistic missile testing, and special flight testing of aircraft. Current navigational aid (Navaid) sondes (Omega and Loran) are inadequate to meet require- ments and are susceptible to atmospheric electrical interference. Ground-based sensing systems such as Doppler acoustic sounding systems, Doppler radar wind profilers, and Lidars have the potential to meet some of the requirements but need to be supported by balloon-borne sensors. The most effective method of ensuring continuous, uninter- rupted rawinsonde operations to the required accuracy is to use the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is available worldwide and is independent of stations operated by other governments. It also has better precision than the ranging type system which can only determine wiiid speed to an accuracy of around 0.4 m/s. GPS technology can provide wind speed measurement to an accuracy of 0.2 m/s. Moreover, the GPS system is not susceptible to any interference (RF or atmospheric) and allows simultaneous tracking of multiple balloons. GPS has not been used previously in a rawinsonde due to the cost of GPS receivers. However, the Western Range, under a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) development program, has contracted for the development of a low cost GPS rawinsonde system. This paper describes the design of the GPS rawinsonde system and includes preliminary test results demonstrating its performance. An opera- tional GPS rawinsonde system can satisfy a wide spectrum of military and civilian requirements for earth observations. The GPS rawinsonde is based on an innovative low cost GPS sensor design, the TIDGET”, which can be manufactured for less than S 100. The paper presents the system design and test results demonstrating the operation of this sensor.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993) September 22 - 24, 1993 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	1539 - 1544
Cite this article:	Brown, Alison, Fisher, Ernest E., Boire, Glen, "Wind Profiling with a GPS Radiosonde - Preliminary Test Results," Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1993, pp. 1539-1544.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In