Range reference atmosphere models

Abstract

A description is given of the methods used to establish the statistical parameters and models for wind and various thermodynamic quantities at an altitude of 0-70 km for nine geographical locations. It is noted that wind is modeled as a vector quantity using the bivariate normal probability function. With the five parameters of the bivariate normal distribution, the distribution for wind speed is derived as a generalized Rayleigh distribution. In addition, the frequency of wind direction is derived, and the conditional distribution of wind speed given the wind direction is derived. It is pointed out that these and other wind models are consistent with the rigorous mathematical properties of the bivariate normal probability theory. The thermodynamic quantities are consistent with the hydrostatic equation and the equation of state for the mean values. With these methods, many statistical relationships can be derived.