Evaluation of the Sparton tight-tolerance AXBT
- NASA, Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, MS (United States)
Forty-six near-simultaneous pairs of conductivity - temperature - depth (CTD) and Sparton `tight tolerance` air expendable bathythermograph (AXBT) temperature profiles were obtained in summer 1991 from a location in the Sargasso Sea. The data were analyzed to assess the temperature and depth accuracies of the Sparton AXBTs. The tight-tolerance criterion was not achieved using the manufacturer`s equations but may have been achieved using customized equations computed from the CTD data. The temperature data from the customized equations had a one standard deviation error of 0.13 C. A customized elapsed fall time-to-depth conversion equation was found to be z = 1.620t - 2.2384 x 10(exp -4) t(exp 2) + 1.291 x 10(exp -7) t(exp 3), with z the depth in meters and t the elapsed fall time after probe release in seconds. The standard deviation of the depth error was about 5 m; a rule of thumb for estimating maximum bounds on the depth error below 100 m could be expressed as +/-2% of depth or +/- 10 m, whichever is greater. This equation gave greater depth accuracy than either the manufacturer`s supplied equation or the navy standard equation.
- OSTI ID:
- 53402
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 10, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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