Meteorological Support for Space Operations Review and Recommendations (1988) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
OBSERVING SYSTEMS
OBSERVING SYSTEMS
Pages 27-36
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From page 27... ...
. Most of the critical weather elements discussed in Chapter 1 cannot currently be observed with the high degree of accuracy required in an endeavor as weather-sensitive as the space program, where small errors can produce catastrophic results.
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From page 28... ...
altitudes, so it is impossible to obtain soundings at less than 1-hour intervals unless multiple tracking devices are available and several balloons are airborne at the same time. Doppler wind profilers, which have been under development for a
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From page 29... ...
Once a suitable profiler data base is attained, the method of assessing launch wind load hazards to the shuttle should be examined. It should be determined if a network of wind profilers at and surrounding KSC could be used to obtain very-short-term forecasts of wind profiles at launch time through advection of wind field patterns across the network.
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From page 30... ...
To obtain better information about spatial and temporal variations of the wind near KSC, NASA should establish a network of Doppler wind profilers and a program for enhanced aircraft observations using available NASA and U.S. Air Force aircraft.
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From page 31... ...
At least two dedicated Doppler radars should be installed in locations that optimize coverage over KSC to improve forecasts using higher resolution boundary layer data and to better relate the wind fields and reflectivity within clouds to the microphysical and electrical development. NASA should consider deploying Doppler sodars for monitoring the boundary layer.
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From page 32... ...
State-of-the-science weather radars provide digital data that can be processed by computerized software packages to derive additional useful products such as vertically integrated liquid water contents, cross sections of reflectivity at any desired angle, and animated imagery. The 30-year-old FPS-77 radar at Vandenberg is not digitized and provides the forecaster only with snapshot views at fixed azimuth or elevation angle.
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From page 33... ...
An LLP system is in operation at KSC; it should be improved by periodically checking the site correction factors and the antenna alignments. Two larger lightning detection networks cover the KSC area: a network of LLP direction finders operated by the State University of New York at Albany and the Florida LPATS network of broadband TOA receivers.
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From page 34... ...
A new system of this type should be built. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration should make improvements to the existing LLP and LPLWS systems and obtain displays of other lightning detection networks in the area, in order to improve detection of lightning and electric fields.
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From page 35... ...
Additional efforts are needed to add companion meteorological data (such as radar data, surface mesonetwork and tower data, satellite data, and sounding data) to the triggered lightning data base for possible forecasting applications and to provide training to operational forecasters concerning the use of field mill network data.
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From page 36... ...
It is most commonly detected and reported by pilots. Some information regarding shears and hence the possibility of turbulence can be derived from the spectrum width of Doppler radar data, both from scanning Doppler weather radar and from Doppler radar wind profilers.
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