Testing a Mobile Version of a Cross-Chain Loran Atmospheric (M-CLASS) Sounding System
Open Access
- 1 February 1990
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- Vol. 71 (2) , 173-180
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1990)071<0173:tamvoa>2.0.co;2
Abstract
We have tested the NCAR Cross-Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System (CLASS) in a fully mobile configuration, which we call M-CLASS. The sondes use LORAN-C navigation signals to allow calculation of balloon position and horizontal winds. In non-stormy environments, thermodynamics and wind data were almost always of high quality. Besides providing special soundings for operational forecasts and research programs, a major feature of mobile ballooning with M-CLASS is the ability to obtain additional data by flying other instruments on the balloons. We flew an electric field meter, along with a sonde, into storms on 8 of the initial 47 test flights in the spring of 1987. In storms, pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind data were of good quality about 80%, 75%, 60%, and 40% of the time, respectively. In a flight into a mesocyclone, we measured electric fields as high as −135 kV/m (at 10 km MSL) in a region of negative charge. The electric field data from several storms allow a quantitative assessment of c... We have tested the NCAR Cross-Chain LORAN Atmospheric Sounding System (CLASS) in a fully mobile configuration, which we call M-CLASS. The sondes use LORAN-C navigation signals to allow calculation of balloon position and horizontal winds. In non-stormy environments, thermodynamics and wind data were almost always of high quality. Besides providing special soundings for operational forecasts and research programs, a major feature of mobile ballooning with M-CLASS is the ability to obtain additional data by flying other instruments on the balloons. We flew an electric field meter, along with a sonde, into storms on 8 of the initial 47 test flights in the spring of 1987. In storms, pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind data were of good quality about 80%, 75%, 60%, and 40% of the time, respectively. In a flight into a mesocyclone, we measured electric fields as high as −135 kV/m (at 10 km MSL) in a region of negative charge. The electric field data from several storms allow a quantitative assessment of c...Keywords
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