The Feasibility of Measuring Turbulence in the Free Atmosphere from Rising Balloons Tracked by FPS-16 Radar

Abstract

On passing through an atmospheric layer that contains random isotropic turbulent eddies, one would expect that a rising balloon would follow an erratic path. Recently, an FPS-16 missile-tracking radar has been used to follow the paths of special balloons that have only small aerodynamic oscillatory motions. To detect turbulent motions, the slant-range measurements are smoothed, and deviations from the smoothed curve are computed and plotted. Ten flights of ?Jimsphere? balloons have been processed in this manner. The slant-range deviations reveal small regular self-induced motions and occasional turbulent layers. Observations of this type provide a means of measuring turbulence from low levels into the stratosphere, and also give concurrent wind measurements. It appears that correlations between properties of the turbulence and the associated wind profile can be determined with greater confidence from these data than from any other turbulence measurements presently available.