An Integrated Sounding System (ISS) that combines state-ofthe-art remote and in situ sensors into a single transportable facility has been developed jointly by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Aeronomy Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA/AL). The instrumentation for each ISS includes a 915-MHz wind profiler, a Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS), an Omega-based NAVAID sounding system, and an enhanced surface meteorological station. The general philosophy behind the ISS is that the integration of various measurement systems overcomes each system's respective limitations while taking advantage of its positive attributes. The individual observing systems within the ISS provide high-level data products to a central workstation that manages and integrates these measurements. The ISS software package performs a wide range of functions: real-time data acquisition, database support, and graphical displays; data archival and communications; and operational and posttime analysis. The first deployment of the ISS consists of six sites in the western tropical Pacific-four land-based deployments and two ship-based deployments. The sites serve the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) of the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program and TOGA's enhanced atmospheric monitoring effort. Examples of ISS data taken during this deployment are shown in order to demonstrate the capabilities of this new sounding system and to demonstrate the performance of these in situ and remote sensing instruments in a moist tropical environment. In particular, a strong convective outflow with a pronounced impact of the atmospheric boundary layer and heat fluxes from the ocean surface was examined with a shipboard ISS. If these strong outflows commonly occur, they may prove to be an important component of the surface energy budget of the western tropical Pacific.

No abstract

With the use of an induction cylinder in conjunction with an optical array probe, simultaneous measurements were obtained of the size, shape, and charge of hydrometeors in a New Mexico thunderstorm, The particles with detectable charges (greater than 1–3 pC) were primarily graupel particles, and their charges are generally consistent with laboratory measurements of ice‐ice collisional charging. The fraction with detectable charge increases with size, as does the magnitude of the mean charge. Also, the positively charged particles occur primarily at higher temperatures (> −22°C), and the degree of negative charging increases with decreasing temperature (down to −35°C).

We discuss an optical fiber-based continuous-wave coherent laser system for measuring the wind speed in undisturbed air ahead of an aircraft. The operational principles of the instrument are described, and estimates of performance are presented. The instrument is demonstrated as a single line of sight, and data from the inaugural test flight of August 2010 is presented. The system was successfully operated under various atmospheric conditions, including cloud and clear air up to 12 km (40,300 ft).

The Aeronomy Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Atmospheric Technology Division of the National Centerfor Atmospheric Research are jointly developing Integrated Sounding Systems (ISS) for use in support of TOGA (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere) and TOGA COARE (Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment). Some of the ISS units will have to be operated on research ships during TOGA COARE's intensive observing period in late 1992 and early 1993. The greatest technical challenge in adapting the ISS to shipboard use is to stabilize the UHF wind profiler that is an integral part of the ISS. In June 1991 a UHF wind-profiling Doppler radar was installed on a stabilized platform aboard the NOAA research vessel Malcolm Baldrige on an eight-day cruise in the Atlantic Ocean. The wind profiler was gyrostabilized and profiler winds were corrected for ship motion utilizing the Global Positioning System. During the eight days at sea, CLASS (Cross-Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System) and OMEGA Sounding System balloons were launched onboard ship for wind profile comparisons. Results of the comparisons show excellent agreement between wind profiles, with an rms difference of about 1 m s _1 in wind speed.