Determining the statistical behaviour of turbulence on short periods from radio sounding data and seeing measurements

In order to get a better understanding of the optical turbulence at the free atmosphere we present a statistical analysis of the wind and temperature profiles at different heights measured by balloon-born sonde during the years 2003,2004 and until mid 2005, and the stellar image twinkling measurements from a DIMM. The data from the balloon-borne measurements shows the variation of the strength of the jet stream and temperature gradient that are related to formation of turbulent layers in the upper air which contribute to the degradation of the optical images or to laser propagation through the atmosphere. The use of standard radiosonde data compared with the seeing can be used as a tool to define the vertical distribution of the strength of the turbulence in the atmosphere and that will contribute to better optimization of the performance of Adaptative Optics systems.