A ‘‘Quad‐Disc’’ static pressure probe for measurement in adverse atmospheres: With a comparative review of static pressure probe designs

There are many areas of need for accurate measurements of atmospheric static pressure. These include observations of surface meteorology, airport altimeter settings, pressure distributions around buildings, moving measurement platforms, as well as basic measurements of fluctuating pressures in turbulence. Most of these observations require long‐term observations in adverse environments (e.g., rain, dust, or snow). Currently, many pressure measurements are made, of necessity, within buildings, thus involving potential errors of several millibars in mean pressure during moderate winds, accompanied by large fluctuating pressures induced by the structure. In response to these needs we designed a ‘‘Quad‐Disc’’ pressure probe for continuous, outdoor monitoring purposes which is inherently weather protected. This Quad‐Disc probe has the desirable features of omnidirectional response and small error in pitch. A review of past static pressure probes contrasts design approaches and capabilities.

[1]  William H. Hooke,et al.  The Dulles Airport Pressure Jump Detector Array for Gust Front Detection , 1977 .

[2]  T. Fujita The Downburst: Microburst and Macroburst , 1985 .

[3]  J. Cunning The Analysis of Surface Pressure Perturbations Within the Mesoscale Range , 1974 .

[4]  P. K. Govind,et al.  Portable Automated Mesonet in Operation , 1977 .

[5]  James Ambrose,et al.  Simplified building design for wind and earthquake forces , 1980 .

[6]  Ronald L. Ives,et al.  Behavior of Dust Devils , 1947 .

[7]  H. Bluestein Surface Meteorological Observations in Severe Thunderstorms. Part II: Field Experiments with TOTO , 1983 .

[8]  P Moran,et al.  A probe for sensing static pressure in two-dimensional flow , 1979 .

[9]  Grant L. Darkow,et al.  Wind Effect on Measured Atmospheric Pressure , 1989 .

[10]  J. Wyngaard,et al.  An Analysis of Closures for Pressure-Scalar Covariances in the Convective Boundary Layer , 1986 .

[11]  William L. Smith,et al.  GAPEX: A Ground-Based Atmospheric Profiling Experiment. , 1990 .

[12]  W. Frost,et al.  Handbook of Turbulence , 1977 .

[13]  Peter Sachs,et al.  Wind Forces in Engineering , 1972 .

[14]  Dennis W. Newton Severe Weather Flying , 1991 .

[15]  Peter Bradshaw,et al.  Experimental Fluid Mechanics , 1970 .

[16]  William H. Hooke,et al.  Waves in the atmosphere : atmospheric infrasound and gravity waves : their generation and propagation , 1975 .

[17]  D. W. Bryer,et al.  Pressure-probe methods for determining wind speed and flow direction , 1971 .

[18]  Fred V. Brock,et al.  Portable Automated Mesonet II , 1986 .

[19]  Peter Bradshaw,et al.  An introduction to turbulence and its measurement , 1971 .

[20]  J. Gandemer Prise de pression C.S.T.B. omnidirectionnelle , 1978 .

[21]  J. A. Elliott Instrumentation for measuring static pressure fluctuations within the atmospheric boundary layer , 1972 .

[22]  O. Tietjens,et al.  Applied hydro- and aeromechanics , 1934 .

[23]  J. Finnigan,et al.  A Climatology of Gravity Waves and Other Coherent Disturbances at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory during March–April 1984 , 1989 .

[24]  J. A. Elliott Microscale pressure fluctuations measured within the lower atmospheric boundary layer , 1972, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[25]  J. P. Johnston,et al.  On the Three-Dimensional Turbulent Boundary Layer Generated by Secondary Flow , 1960 .

[26]  James P. Johnston The Turbulent Boundary Layer at a Plane of Symmetry in a Three-Dimensional Flow , 1960 .

[27]  P. Robertson A direction-insensitive static head sensor , 1972 .

[28]  R. Miksad An Omni-Directional Static Pressure Probe , 1976 .

[29]  P. Sinclair SOME PRELIMINARY DUST DEVIL MEASUREMENTS , 1964 .