IMPROVED ROCKETSONDE PARACHUTE-DERIVED WIND PROFILES,

Abstract : A correction technique to derive a realistic wind profile from an observed parachute wind profile was developed and is being used at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Wind profiles are obtained by utilizing a computer and data obtained by an FPS-16 radar which tracks the parachute and records parachute position at the rate of 10 points per second on a digital tape. To test the validity of the correction technique, several experiments were conducted in which two rockets, one containing a parachute wind sensor and the other containing special high-altitude chaff, were fired within a time period of five minutes. The corrections were applied to the parachute-determined winds and the resulting wind profiles compared with the chaff-determined wind profiles. In extreme cases, the correction can amount to 200 meters per second. (Author)