Tethersonde Development
Principal Investigator: Mr Matt Hobby
Sponsor: NCAS
Start Date: 1 April 2007
End Date: 31 March 2008
Value to Leeds: £25,000
Summary
The Tethersonde instrument enables high rate wind speed data to be recorded in 3 dimensions for turbulent airflow analysis. By attaching the instrument to a tethered helium balloon, high resolution profiles of the atmospheric boundary layer can be obtained.
The instrument has been flown at heights of up to 1km and profiles of temperature, pressure and humidity have been obtained. Additionally wind data and balloon motion is recorded from the Tethersonde. Subsequent algorithms to remove the balloons motion from the wind data have been implemented. The wind speeds obtained from this analysis are in the region of magnitude expected from looking at the data obtained from nearby lower rate Sodar instruments.
The project continues to
- develop the robustness of the instrument
- calibrate and compare data against other sources
- improve the user interface for the instrument
Further development of the system will ensure that the data it provides is unequivocal and of use to the scientific community and others.