AN ANALYSIS OF THE AN/FPS-16-ROSE SYSTEM

The ROSE system utilizes 30-gram, 40-inch ROSE balloons and the AN/FPS-16 radar to obtain a fine scale vertical profile of horizontal winds from the radar track of the balloon. In order to establish the reliability of a calculated wind profile, an analysis of the system and of its components was compiled. Two basic smoothing techniques for obtaining velocities from a noisy discrete time series were considered: averaging techniques and polynomial techniques. Criteria for determining the optimum smoothing technique for a given experiment were also determined. The types of error found in the track of an AN/FPS-16 radar were analyzed and the range resolver error and the radar bias were investigated. When a least squares linear technique was used to compute the wind field the wind errors were also calculated. Six, 40-inch ROSE balloons were modified in regard to the number of gores and the size of the pressure valve used. An evaluation of the modified balloons indicated that the 4-gore, 3/4-inch ROSE performed best. A final comparison was made between this modified ROSE and the JIMSPHERE. (Author)