A METHOD OF COMPUTING WINDS, DENSITY, TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE, AND THEIR ASSOCIATED ERRORS FROM THE HIGH ALTITUDE ROBIN SPHERE USING AN OPTIMUM FILTER

Optimum reduction techniques have been determined and a computer program written to measure density, winds, temperature and pressure from the passive ROBIN Sphere in the 30-100 km region of atmosphere. The program extends the maximum altitude of the 1965 ROBIN Program from 70-100 km. Output from the computer program also includes the estimated noise errors in density, winds, temperature, and pressure, the frequency response of density and winds as function of altitude, and Cal-comp plots of the meteorological parameters. The smoothing techniques used in the program were determined so as to minimize the sum of the random and bias errors in density and winds. A separate smoothing function was determined for density and for wind calculations. The density smoothing function expands below 60 km in order to maintain a constant 2% noise error in density. All possible sources of error in the meteorological parameters are discussed. For the first time error equations have been derived for temperature and pressure errors. Error estimates are made for random errors, bias errors, and errors resulting from the initial estimate of temperature.