Surface Wind Sampling for Unguided Rocket Impact Prediction

Abstract

This report presents results of studies performed at White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex., to determine the optimum data sampling period for obtaining representative (average) surface winds for use in prelaunch real-time impact prediction of unguided rockets. Results of these studies show that an average wind computed from a sample several minutes long (necessarily taken at an observation point some distance from the launch point) provides a better estimate of the wind at the launch point than do short-term averages. Moreover, the results indicate that regardless of the averaging period, up to 360 sec, the space-time wind forecast error increases rapidly as a function of forecast time up to approximately 300 sec.