Summary
Superpressure, or constant-level, balloons have long been used to obtain horizontal wind velocities in the atmosphere. This paper presents equations which can be used to evaluate ω; the vertical wind component in pressure co-ordinates, from on-board pressure and temperature sensors. These equations take into account the short-term displacements of a balloon from its equilibrium density level, and thus they do not assume that the balloon precisely maintains constant density. The longer-term and largeramplitude diurnal oscillations in balloon level, and also an approximation used in deriving the vertical velocity equations, are both discussed in some detail. These equations can be used to obtain quantitative estimates of ω if reasonable estimates of the ambient lapse rate could be obtained.
Zusammenfassung
Überdruckballone, die in konstantem Niveau driften, werden seit langem zur Messung horizontaler Windgeschwindigkeiten in der Atmosphäre verwendet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Gleichungen geboten, mit denen ω, die vertikale Geschwindigkeitskomponente in einem Druck-Koordinatensystem, aus Druck- und Temperaturmesswerten ausgewertet werden kann. Diese Gleichungen ziehen die kurzzeitigen Abweichungen des Ballons aus seinem Gleichgewichtsniveau in Betracht und verlangen daher nicht die Annahme, daß der Ballon genau ein konstantes Dichteniveau einhält. Die täglichen Schwankungen im Ballonniveau, die längere Frequenzen und größere Amplituden aufweisen sowie eine Annäherung in der Ableitung der Gleichungen für die vertikale Windgeschwindigkeit werden im Detail behandelt. Mittels dieser Gleichungen, können quantitative Abschätzungen von ω erhalten werden, falls das vertikale Temperaturprofil in der Umgebung des Ballons bekannt ist.
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Banta, R.M. Equations and approximations involved in computing vertical wind velocities from superpressure balloon data. Arch. Met. Geoph. Biokl. A. 25, 19–30 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02245466
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02245466