skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Experimental radiosonde for the investigation of the water vapor in the stratosphere

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:217957

Following a short discussion of the limitations of the various types of balloon-borne radiosondes when used to gather information in the stratosphere, an analysis of the reasons for these limitations and some means for circumventing them are presented. It is shown that the choice of sensing element, or transducer, for temperature measurement is rather arbitrary so long as the element possesses a small lag coefficient and high albedo. For pressure measurement it is shown that a nonlinear transducer, such as the hypsometer, with a sensitivity which increases at low pressure, is essential. For humidity measurement, only the condensation (dew point) technique is capable of giving meaningful data at great heights. The balance of the paper describes in detail a complete sounding instrument consisting of a hypsometer, a fine-wire thermo junction, and a fully automatic electronic dew-point hygrometer, together with the necessary amplifier radio telemetering equipment, and internal calibration standard. The telemetering system is of special interest due to the relatively great accuracy obtainable with a very simple arrangement of components, utilizing only a modified Diamond-Hinman radiosonde.

Research Organization:
Chicago Univ., IL (United States). Dept. of Meteorology
OSTI ID:
217957
Report Number(s):
AD-A-301255/6/XAB; CNN: Contract N6ORI-20; TRN: 60780606
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Jun 1952
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer (CFH) Instrument Handbook
Technical Report · Thu Mar 22 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · OSTI ID:217957

A comparison of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II tropospheric water vapor to radiosonde measurements
Journal Article · Sat Mar 20 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) · OSTI ID:217957

Stratospheric water vapor measurements during CHEOPS-3. [CHemistry of Ozone in the Polar Stratosphere]
Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States) · OSTI ID:217957