The Measurement of Temperature in the Stratosphere and Mesosphere

Abstract

Careful consideration of the heat transfer equations for a rocket-borne stratospheric temperature sensor in the form of a spherical bead thermistor coupled with an experimental analysis of the physical, thermodynamic and electrical characteristics of the rocketsonde, indicated that the corrections to the observed thermistor temperatures could be substantially reduced through development of a new rocketsonde. Redesign of the rocketsonde temperature sensor reduced the theoretical temperature correction at 65 km from a value of 36C for the Delta-I temperature sensing instrument to approximately 6C for the new design. Temperature data obtained with the new stratospheric temperature sonde STS-1 showed that, after instrument expulsion at 74 km and at rocket nose-cone temperature near 100C, the thermistor temperatures at and below 60 km were, without correction, in close agreement with those predicted by the U. S. 1962 Standard Atmosphere.