Accuracy Analysis of Rubsonde-GPS Wind Sounding System

Abstract

The results of program of estimate the limiting accuracy of atmospheric wind profiles obtained by tracking a new balloon, the Rubsonde, with the Global Positioning System (GPS) are presented. In the first part, the authors detail the data processing and find the total precision of wind measurements in the case of a Rubsonde tracked by a very high resolution centimetric radar, the Aquitaine, is as low as 0.3 m s?1 for wind measurements over 25-m layers. In the second part, the Rubsonde-GPS wind measurements are compared with those of the Jimsphere tracked by the Aquitaine, and it is found that the instrumental accuracies are the same. The difference between these two 25-m atmospheric wind profiles, separated by a 10-min time interval, is found to be less than 0.6 m s?1. The validity of the Rubsonde-GPS system for measuring wind variability is then demonstrated.