Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (xxvi, 270 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Lee C Harrison

Committee Members

Kristen L Corbosiero, Bryan Tang, Ryan Torn

Keywords

Convection, Dropsondes, Instrumentation, Pitot-static, Tropical cyclones, Vertical velocity, Dropwindsondes, Vertical wind shear, Air speed, Air-speed indicators

Subject Categories

Atmospheric Sciences | Meteorology

Abstract

The earliest iterations of dropsondes in the 1960's obtained vertical velocity by measuring the geometric fall speed of the dropsonde and the true airspeed (TAS) of the dropsonde from a pitot-static. The vertical velocity errors from this methodology were claimed to be ±1 m s-1. Subsequent dropsonde iterations used various forms of the drag force equation to obtain vertical velocity. The accuracy of these drag force-based measurements, however, are also quite large at ±1–2 m s-1. In this dissertation, an attempt is made to improve vertical velocity errors by revisiting and revising the pitot-static-derived TAS methodology on the eXpendable Digital Dropsondes (XDDs). The primary goals were to decrease errors to ±0.1 m s-1 and introduce a prototype for a highly accurate vertical velocity dropsonde for use in tropical cyclone (TC) research.

Download

Share

COinS