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atmos:citation:cals:winds:bismarck_rawinsonde_sounding_comparison_july_25_2003

Bismarck Rawinsonde Sounding Comparison

On July 25, 2003, the University of North Dakota's Citation aircraft flew over the Bismarck, North Dakota rawinsonde launch site. The rawinsonde itself was observed by aircraft crew members while making measurement at the first altitude segment. The aircraft could not follow the rawinsonde down wind of the launch site since it was restricted to fly within an airspace box. The aircraft flew approximately 3 minute segments in two directions at four different altitudes. Table 1 compares the wind speed and direction from the University of North Dakota's Citation aircraft with the rawinsonde measurements. Figure 1 gives a SkewT plot of the rawinsonde sounding. The Citation aircraft data shows a slight depends on aircraft heading. The Citation and rawinsonde wind speed are within a meter per second and the wind direction are within 5 degrees. This is pretty good agreement when you note the variability of the measured wind (see standard deviation values for the Citation wind measurements). Furthermore, this comparison was done under cloudy condition with a lot of cumulus clouds in the area.

Start Time (sec) End Time (sec) Heading (deg) Pressure (hPa) Wind Speed (m/s) Wind Direction (deg)
Citation \Sounding Citation \ Sounding
83287 83483 143 591 15.14 ± 0.80 \ 14.5 272.6 ± 3.6 \ 268
83576 83748 321 15.29 ± 0.56 \ 14.5 272.0 ± 3.1 \ 268
84176 84362 317 466 19.92 ± 0.67 \ 20.2 269.3 ± 2.7 \ 266
84460 84650 143 19.15 ± 0.63 \ 20.2 270.9 ± 2.9 \ 266
85202 85391 145 376 23.22 ± 1.11 \ 23.7 268.4 ± 1.1 \ 270
85494 85726 321 25.43 ± 1.33 \ 23.7 269.3 ± 1.3 \ 270
85977 86170 143 330 21.87 ± 0.70 \ 20.9 269.2 ± 3.3 \ 270
86283 86606 320 21.44 ± 0.90 \ 20.9 267.3 ± 3.7 \ 270

* Table 1: Summary of the July 25, 2003 wind comparison between the University of North Dakota's Citation aircraft and a rawinsonde sounding. The rawinsonde data are from the July 26, 2003 00Z Bismarck, North Dakota sounding and were interpolated to the pressure level of the aircraft legs.

  • Figure 1: SkewT plot of the Bismarck, North Dakota sounding data at 00Z on July 26, 2003. The SkewT plot is from the NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory.
atmos/citation/cals/winds/bismarck_rawinsonde_sounding_comparison_july_25_2003.txt · Last modified: 2020/01/29 17:25 by 127.0.0.1