A GPS Environmental Sounding System

Alison K. Brown, Ernest E. Fisher and Frank Hayo

Abstract:	The Meteordogical Sounding System (MSS) employed by the National Ranges uses a ground transmitting ranging system for space poskion location of the radiosonde instrument Since these radiosondes indude a broad-band receiver, multiple radiosondes cannot be deployed and operated in the same area. This limits the ability of the MSS to make muitiple measurements of wind speed and other parameters required to provide continuous update In atmospheric variations. A GPS Environmental Sounding System (GESS) has been developed jointIy by NAVSYS and OSC to provide a solution to these problems. GPS provides highly accurate posltion and velocity data, is operational worldwide, is independent of stations operated by other governments, and is free of interference from atmospherics. To date, however, the cost of GPS receivers has prohibited their application on radiosondes. NAVSYS has developed and applied for a patent on a new type of GPS sensor, the TIDGET’“. This was designed specifically to reduce the sensor cost below $100. Since over 100,000 radiosondes are currently launched each year in the US alone, the cost of the sensor is the driving factor for the radiosonde application. In the future, it is anticipated that the sensor cost will drop even further with the advent of lower cost components. Because of the unique architecture employed in the TIDGET, lt can always be produced for less than the price of a conventional GPS receiver. In this paper, the design of the GPS radiosonde and the associated GESS ground equipment is described. The use of GPS is anticipated to improve significantly the quality of wind speed and other meteorological data without significantly increasing the operational costs. GPS also provides a very compact passive radiosonde station which can be operated worldwide without regard for location or stability of station platf0~.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 5th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1992) September 16 - 18, 1992 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	307 - 315
Cite this article:	Brown, Alison K., Fisher, Ernest E., Hayo, Frank, "A GPS Environmental Sounding System," Proceedings of the 5th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1992), Albuquerque, NM, September 1992, pp. 307-315.
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