First Test of a Shipboard Wind Profiler

Abstract

The Aeronomy Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Atmospheric Technology Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research are jointly developing Integrated Sounding Systems (ISS) for use in support of TOGA (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere) and TOGA COARE (Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment). Some of the ISS units will have to be operated on research ships during TOGA COARE's intensive observing period in late 1992 and early 1993. The greatest technical challenge in adapting the ISS to shipboard use is to stabilize the UHF wind profiler that is an integral part of the ISS. In June 1991 a UHF wind-profiling Doppler radar was installed on a stabilized platform aboard the NOAA research vessel Malcolm Baldrige on an eight-day cruise in the Atlantic Ocean. The wind profiler was gyrostabilized and profiler winds were corrected for ship motion utilizing the Global Positioning System. During the eight days at sea, CLASS (Cross-Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System) and OMEGA Sounding System balloons were launched on-board ship for wind profile comparisons. Results of the comparisons show excellent agreement between wind profiles, with an rms difference of about 1 m s?1 in wind speed.