Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “wind speed and direction”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Interpretation of combined wind profiler and aircraft-measured tropospheric winds and clear air turbulence

In the first experiment, it was found that wind profilers are far better suited for the detailed examination of jet stream structure than are weather balloons. The combination of good vertical resolution with not previously obtained temporal resolution reveals structural details not seen before. Development of probability-derived shear values appears possible. A good correlation between pilot reports of turbulence and wind shear was found. In the second experiment, hourly measurements of wind speed and direction obtained using two wind profiling Doppler radars during two prolonged jet stream occurrences over western Pennsylvania were analyzed. In particular, the time-variant characteristics of derived shear profiles were examined. Profiler data dropouts were studied in an attempt to determine possible reasons for the apparently reduced performance of profiling radar operating beneath a jet stream. Richardson number and wind shear statistics were examined along with pilot reports of turbulence in the vicinity of the profiler.

Thomson, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS2009

UAVSAR - A New Airborne L-Band Radar for Repeat Pass Interferometry

NASA/JPL has developed a new airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) which has become available for use by the scientific community in January, 2009. Pod mounted, the UAVSAR was designed to be portable among a variety of aircraft, including unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The instrument operates in the L-Band, has a resolution under 2m from a GPS altitude of 12Km and a swath width of approximately 20Km. UAVSAR currently flies on a modified Gulfstream-III aircraft, operated by NASA s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. The G-III platform enables repeat-pass interferometric measurements, by using a modified autopilot and precise kinematic differential GPS to repeatedly fly the aircraft within a specified 10m tube. The antenna is electronically steered along track to assure that the antenna beam can be directed independently, regardless of speed and wind direction. The instrument can be controlled remotely, AS AN OPTION, using the Research Environment for Vehicle Embedded Analysis on Linux (REVEAL). This allows simulation of the telepresence environment necessary for flight on UAS. Potential earth science research and applications include surface deformation, volcano studies, ice sheet dynamics, and vegetation structure.

Mace, Thomas H.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Tropospheric Wind Profile Measurements with a Direct Detection Doppler Lidar

Research has established the importance of global tropospheric wind measurements for large scale improvements in numerical weather prediction. In addition, global wind measurements provide data that are fundamental to the understanding and prediction of global climate change. These tasks are closely linked with the goals of the NASA Earth Science Enterprise and Global Climate Change programs. NASA Goddard has been actively involved in the development of direct detection Doppler lidar methods and technologies to meet the wind observing needs of the atmospheric science community. In this paper we describe a recently developed prototype wind lidar system using a direct detection Doppler technique for measuring wind profiles from the surface through the troposphere. This system uses a pulsed ND:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm as the transmitter. The laser pulse is directed to the atmosphere using a 40 cm diameter scan mirror. The portion of the laser energy backscattered from aerosols and molecules is collected by a 40 cm diameter telescope and coupled via fiber optics into the Doppler receiver. Single photon counting APD's are used to detect the atmospheric backscattered signal. The principle element of the receiver is a dual bandpass tunable Fabry Perot etalon which analyzes the Doppler shift of the incoming laser signal using the double edge technique. The double edge technique uses two high resolution optical filters having bandpasses offset relative to one another such that the 'edge' of the first filter's transmission function crosses that of the second at the half power point. The outgoing laser frequency is located approximately at the crossover point. Due to the opposite going slopes of the edges, a Doppler shift in the atmospheric backscattered laser frequency produces a positive change in signal for one filter and a negative change in the second filter. Taking the ratio of the two edge channel signals yields a result which is directly proportional to the component of the wind along the line-of-sight of the laser. Measuring the radial wind in several directions provides sufficient information to determine the true wind speed and direction. The lidar has operated from our laboratory at Goddard since June, 1997. Wind profiles have been obtained to altitudes of 12 km with a vertical resolution of 330 in. Vector wind data are obtained by rotating the scan mirror to measure line-of-sight wind profiles for at least two azimuth angles at an elevation angle of 45 degrees. The precision of the data as determined from the standard deviation of multiple independent lidar profiles is in the range of 1 to 3 m/sec up to 10 km. Good agreement is obtained when the lidar data are compared with the upper air rawinsonde soundings taken at Dulles airport. Examples of the wind lidar data will be presented along with a description of the instrument and future developments.

Gentry, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS1996

New Microwave Technology for Ocean Wind Measurements

Global mapping of near surface ocean winds is crucial for many meteorological, oceanographic and atmospheric studies. The microwave emission from the ocean surface is elliptically polarized and the degree of polarizationand angle is a function of the surface wind speed and direction...A summary of all the ocean polarimetric data vs. wind speed and incidence angle from three flights in 1994 and eight flights in 1995 is presented.

global mapping ocean winds near surface ocean wind↗
NASA NTRS1972

Effect of transient winds on the flow quality of an open-circuit wind-tunnel model

The effect of a transient wind on the test-section flow quality of an open-circuit wind tunnel was investigated experimentally. The investigation was restricted to transient wind effects associated with the inlet. A small open-circuit wind tunnel was placed outside in the real wind environment. Test-section speed and angularity as well as wind speed and direction was measured by high-response instrumentation. The inlet configuration was varied with a set of screens, a removable honeycomb, and a removable inlet lip. Acceptable flow was obtained at all wind angles and for wind- to test-section-velocity ratios up to 0.4 with an inlet configuration having five screens, a honeycomb, and a lip. With inlet configurations sensitive to winds, a transient wind parallel to the tunnel axis produced local fluctuations in test-section speed and angularity; however, oscillation of the average test-section speed was not evident. The effect of wind direction was negligible up to wind angles of 45 deg relative to the tunnel axis. At larger wind angles, flow distortions occurred primarily on the windward side of the test section.

Breunlin, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

An atlas of monthly mean distributions of SSMI surface wind speed, AVHRR/2 sea surface temperature, AMI surface wind velocity, TOPEX/POSEIDON sea surface height, and ECMWF surface wind velocity during 1993

The following monthly mean global distributions for 1993 are presented with a common color scale and geographical map: 10-m height wind speed estimated from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) on a United States (U.S.) Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft; sea surface temperature estimated from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR/2) on a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite; 10-m height wind speed and direction estimated from the Active Microwave Instrument (AMI) on the European Space Agency (ESA) European Remote Sensing (ERS-1) satellite; sea surface height estimated from the joint U.S.-France Topography Experiment (TOPEX)/POSEIDON spacecraft; and 10-m height wind speed and direction produced by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF). Charts of annual mean, monthly mean, and sampling distributions are displayed.

Halpern, D.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Weather Research and Forecasting Model Wind Sensitivity Study at Edwards Air Force Base, CA

NASA prefers to land the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). When weather conditions violate Flight Rules at KSC, NASA will usually divert the shuttle landing to Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in Southern California. But forecasting surface winds at EAFB is a challenge for the Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) forecasters due to the complex terrain that surrounds EAFB, One particular phenomena identified by SMG is that makes it difficult to forecast the EAFB surface winds is called "wind cycling". This occurs when wind speeds and directions oscillate among towers near the EAFB runway leading to a challenging deorbit bum forecast for shuttle landings. The large-scale numerical weather prediction models cannot properly resolve the wind field due to their coarse horizontal resolutions, so a properly tuned high-resolution mesoscale model is needed. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model meets this requirement. The AMU assessed the different WRF model options to determine which configuration best predicted surface wind speed and direction at EAFB, To do so, the AMU compared the WRF model performance using two hot start initializations with the Advanced Research WRF and Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model dynamical cores and compared model performance while varying the physics options.

Watson, Leela R.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Wind tower influence study

Set of correction factors is applied to measured mean wind speed and direction so that close approximations of the mean speed and direction of the free stream wind can be obtained from a wind tower. A wind director sensor is employed to determine which sensor is windward of the tower and to engage it for monitoring the wind.

Hathorn, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

A field investigation and numerical simulation of coastal fog

A field investigation of the microphysical and micrometeorological features of fogs occurring near Los Angeles and Vandenberg, California was conducted. Observations of wind speed and direction, temperature, dew point, vertical wind velocity, dew deposition, drop-size distribution, liquid water content, and haze and cloud nucleus concentration were obtained. These observations were initiated in late evening prior to fog formation and continued until the time of dissipation in both advection and radiation fogs. Data were also acquired in one valley fog and several dense haze situations. The behavior of these parameters prior to and during fog are discussed in detail. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed to investigate the formation and dissipation of advection fogs under the influence of horizontal variations in surface temperature. The model predicts the evolution of potential temperature, water vapor content, and liquid water content in a vertical plane as determined by vertical turbulent transfer and horizontal advection. Results are discussed from preliminary numerical experiments on the formation of warm-air advection fog and dissipation by natural and artificial heating from the surface.

Mack, E. J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Earth Observing System (EOS)

The Earth Observing System is a US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program consisting of a science segment, a data system, and a space segment made up of a series of polar-orbiting and mid-inclination satellites for long-term monitoring of the Earth as an integrated system, including observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans. Initially conceived in the mid-late 1980s, it was implemented as a series of large "flagship" missions and smaller focused satellites, often in partnership with instruments and sometimes spacecraft from other nations. In 1984 NASA formed several instrument panels to develop concepts for “facility instruments” that would provide comprehensive support to the scientific and applications’ communities, each with a supporting science team competitively selected via peer-review. An Announcement of Opportunity was released in 1988 and proposals were solicited for three types of proposals: (i) instrument investigations that would include the provision of instrumentation for flight on a polar platform, including non-Earth science payloads requiring polar orbits (PI instruments), (ii) research facility instrument team member and team leader investigations for facility instruments, and (iii) interdisciplinary science investigations to provide data analysis and modeling, preparing to use data acquired from the space platforms. The initial selections made in 1989 included support for 24 instrument investigations, 6 research facility instrument investigations, and 28 interdisciplinary investigations. Although considerable changes were made over the years in the structure and orbital configuration of the various instruments and platforms, a total of 10 different missions were eventually flown, as shown in Fig. 1. These included three multiinstrument flagship platforms known as Terra (launched in 1999), Aqua (launched in 2002), and Aura (launched in 2004), where the Terra mission emphasis was primarily on land processes, Aqua on the hydrological cycle, and Aura on atmospheric chemistry. In addition to these flagship missions the EOS missions included Landsat 7 (land cover classification and change), QuikScat (wind speed and direction over the oceans), Jason-1 (ocean surface topography and sea level), ACRIMSAT (total solar irradiance (TSI)), SAGE III (stratospheric aerosol and ozone levels), ICESat (ice, cloud, and land elevation), and SORCE (Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment; total and spectral solar irradiance). In addition EOS supported CERES (an Earth radiation budget sensor) and LIS (a lightning sensor), that flew as part of the NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (1997), and SeaWinds (wind speed and direction), that flew as part of the short-lived ADEOS II (Midori II, 2002) mission of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). The EOS contributions are too numerous to present in detail in this article, but can be viewed for convenience as a means of obtaining global measurements (with appropriate characteristics) of the 24 variables and variable groups listed in Table 1. This table was created by the EOS community in the late 1990s as a way to succinctly indicate which instruments on the various EOS platforms were expected to contribute to each of the specified variables in primary (bold), secondary (bold italics), or contributing (roman) roles. All of the science data products produced by these space missions are available without charge throughout the world, and are thus highly valued for their many contributions to applications such as air quality, fires, land cover change, and the state of the oceans, as well as for science and monitoring of the state of the Earth system and its changes over time. These and other international satellites have played a crucial role in understanding and documenting global change, including (i) global surface temperature and atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles, (ii) glacial retreat, (iii) sea ice extent and change, (iv) solar radiation into and out of the Earth-atmosphere system, (v) atmospheric aerosol and cloud properties, (vi) sources and sinks of

ICESat↗
NASA NTRS1999

Measuring Directional Wave Spectra and Wind Speed with a Scanning Radar Altimeter

The geometry for the NASA Scanning Radar Altimeter (SRA) is shown. It transmits a 8-ns duration pulse at Ka-band (8.3 mm) and measures time of flight as it scans a 1 degree (two-way) beam from left to right across the aircraft ground track. The most recent configuration determines the surface elevation at 64 points spaced at uniform angular intervals of about 0.7 across a swath whose width is about 0.8 times the aircraft altitude. The system generates these raster lines of the surface topography beneath the aircraft at about a 10 Hz rate. In postflight processing the SRA wave topographic data are transformed with a two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) and Doppler corrected to produce directional wave spectra. The SRA is not absolutely calibrated in power, but by measuring the relative fall-off of backscatter with increasing incidence angle, the SRA can also determine the mean square slope (mss) of the sea surface, a surrogate for wind speed. For the slope-dependent specular point model of radar sea surface scattering, an expression approximated by a geometric optics form, for the relative variation with incidence angle of the normalized backscatter radar cross section would be sigma (sup 0) (sub rel) = sec (exp 4) theta exp (-tan squared theta/mss) where theta is the off-nadir incidence angle.

Walsh, E. J.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Seasat--A 25-Year Legacy of Success

Thousands of scientific publications and dozens of textbooks include data from instruments derived from NASA's Seasat. The Seasat mission was launched on June 26, 1978, on an Atlas-Agena rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was the first Earth-orbiting satellite to carry four complementary microwave experiments--the Radar Altimeter (ALT) to measure ocean surface topography by measuring spacecraft altitude above the ocean surface; the Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS), to measure wind speed and direction over the ocean; the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) to measure surface wind speed, ocean surface temperature, atmospheric water vapor content, rain rate, and ice coverage; and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), to image the ocean surface, polar ice caps, and coastal regions. While originally designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans, the legacy of Seasat has had a profound impact in many other areas including solid earth science, hydrology, ecology and planetary science.

Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer↗
NASA NTRS1990

Automatic detection of low altitude wind shear due to gust fronts in the terminal Doppler weather radar operational demonstration

A gust front is the leading edge of the cold air outflow from a thunderstorm. Wind shears and turbulence along the gust front may produce potentially hazardous conditions for an aircraft on takeoff or landing such that runway operations are significantly impacted. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has therefore determined that the detection of gust fronts in the terminal environment be an integral part of the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) system. Detection of these shears by the Gust Front Algorithm permits the generation of warnings that can be issued to pilots on approach and departure. In addition to the detection capability, the algorithm provides an estimate of the wind speed and direction following the gust front (termed wind shift) and the forecasted location of the gust front up to 20 minutes before it impacts terminal operations. This has shown utility as a runway management tool, alerting runway supervisors to approaching wind shifts and the possible need to change runway configurations. The formation and characteristics of gust fronts and their signatures in Doppler radar data are discussed. A brief description of the algorithm and its products for use by Air Traffic Control (ATC), along with an assessment of the algorithm's performance during the 1988 Operational Test and Evaluation, is presented.

Klingle-Wilson, Diana↗
NASA NTRS2016

How to Interactively Operate the Global Hawk UAS NOAA/NASA ENSO Payload, from Your Armchair, Five Thousand Kilometers Away

This paper will describe the information technologies developed by NASA and NOAA for the February 2016 Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT) El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Campaign. The air vehicle is a NASA Global Hawk UAS, with a primary payload of four instruments, two developed by NASA, two developed by NOAA. The aircraft is based at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. The payload components are remotely operated by scientists at various facilities, and the data collected downloaded over satellite links in real time for analysis and collaboration. NOAA: Advanced Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS), developed by NCAR, which deploys dozens of dropsondes at altitudes up to 65,000 ft to collect high vertical resolution measurements of the temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction. NASA: High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP), a radar designed to examine the factors of storm intensity: formation, structure and intensification. NOAA: O3 Photometer (UAS-O3), designed specifically for autonomous, precise, and accurate O3 measurements in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS). NASA JPL: High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR), an atmospheric microwave temperature and humidity sounder instrument that looks at the microwave spectrum.

Southern Oscilliation↗
NASA NTRS2009

Weather Research and Forecasting Model Wind Sensitivity Study at Edwards Air Force Base, CA

This abstract describes work that will be done by the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) in assessing the success of different model configurations in predicting "wind cycling" cases at Edwards Air Force Base, CA (EAFB), in which the wind speeds and directions oscillate among towers near the EAFB runway. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model allows users to choose among two dynamical cores - the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) and the Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NMM). There are also data assimilation analysis packages available for the initialization of the WRF model - the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) and the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) Data Analysis System (ADAS). Having a series of initialization options and WRF cores, as well as many options within each core, creates challenges for local forecasters, such as determining which configuration options are best to address specific forecast concerns. The goal of this project is to assess the different configurations available and determine which configuration will best predict surface wind speed and direction at EAFB.

Watson, Leela R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Performance evaluation of a spaceborne scatterometer

Study results are presented showing performance capability of a spaceborne scatterometer to operationally measure ocean surface wind speed and direction. In addition, a research mode is described which will allow development of improved radar signatures for ocean, sea ice, and land targets. The study results show that a scatterometer can meet the operational requirements of + or - 2 m/s wind speed accuracy (or + or - 10%, whichever is greater) and + or - 20 deg wind direction accuracy over most of the expected ocean surface conditions. The six beam scatterometer design evaluated is shown to be skillful (greater than 90% correct) in specifying the correct wind vector solution (with a 180 deg ambiguity) from the multiple solutions derived; further improvement must rely on meteorological and pattern recognition techniques now under study.

Grantham, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Motion-Corrected 3D Sonic Anemometer for Tethersondes and Other Moving Platforms

To date, it has not been possible to apply 3D sonic anemometers on tethersondes or similar atmospheric research platforms due to the motion of the supporting platform. A tethersonde module including both a 3D sonic anemometer and associated motion correction sensors has been developed, enabling motion-corrected 3D winds to be measured from a moving platform such as a tethersonde. Blimps and other similar lifting systems are used to support tethersondes meteorological devices that fly on the tether of a blimp or similar platform. To date, tethersondes have been limited to making basic meteorological measurements (pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction). The motion of the tethersonde has precluded the addition of 3D sonic anemometers, which can be used for high-speed flux measurements, thereby limiting what has been achieved to date with tethersondes. The tethersonde modules fly on a tether that can be constantly moving and swaying. This would introduce enormous error into the output of an uncorrected 3D sonic anemometer. The motion correction that is required must be implemented in a low-weight, low-cost manner to be suitable for this application. Until now, flux measurements using 3D sonic anemometers could only be made if the 3D sonic anemometer was located on a rigid, fixed platform such as a tower. This limited the areas in which they could be set up and used. The purpose of the innovation was to enable precise 3D wind and flux measurements to be made using tether - sondes. In brief, a 3D accelerometer and a 3D gyroscope were added to a tethersonde module along with a 3D sonic anemometer. This combination allowed for the necessary package motions to be measured, which were then mathematically combined with the measured winds to yield motion-corrected 3D winds. At the time of this reporting, no tethersonde has been able to make any wind measurement other than a basic wind speed and direction measurement. The addition of a 3D sonic anemometer is unique, as is the addition of the motion-correction sensors.

Bognar, John↗
NASA NTRS2000

SSMI Wind Speed Climatology of the Time of Monsoon Wind Offset in the Western Arabian Sea

Forecasting the time of onset of monsoon wind in the western Arabian Sea, which is believed to precede the onset of rainfall along the west coast of India, is an important unsolved problem. Prior to measurements of the surface wind field by satellite, there was an absence of suitable surface wind observations. NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) surface wind vectors revealed that the time of the 1997 onset of 12 m/s southwest monsoon wind speeds in the western Arabian Sea preceded the onset of monsoon rainfall in Goa, India, by 3 - 4 days. Wind speed and direction data were necessary to establish a dynamical mechanism between times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed off Somalia and rainfall in Goa. Except for NSCAT, no satellite scatterometer wind product recorded adequately sampled 2-day 1deg x 1deg averaged wind vectors, which are the required space and time scales, to examine the wind-rain relationship in other years. However, the greater-than-95% steadiness of summer monsoon winds allows an opportunity to use satellite measurements of surface wind speed. The Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) recorded surface wind speed with adequate sampling to produce a 1-day, 1deg x 1deg data product during 1988 - 1998. SSMI data had been uniformly processed throughout the period. Times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed off Somalia determined with the SSMI data set were 21 May 1988, 24 May 1989, 17 May 1990, 28 May 1991, 8 June 1992, 28 May 1993, 30 May 1994, 7 June 1995, 29 May 1996, 12 June 1997, and 15 May 1998. Uncertainty of the 1992 and 1996 times of onset were increased because of the absence of SSMI data on 6 and 7 June 1992 and on 30 May 1996. Correlations of timing of monsoon wind onset with El Nino will be described. Variability of the time difference between times of onset of 12 m/s wind speed and Goa rainfall will be discussed. At the time of submission of the abstract, the Goa rainfall data have not arrived from the India Meteorological Department.

Halpern, David↗