concordiasi driftsonde performance

Concordiasi Driftsonde Performance

© Copyright 2011 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 1

Concordiasi Workshop 21 – 22 October 2011

National Center for Atmospheric Research

Earth Observing Lab Boulder, CO

Driftsonde Team

Terry Hock, Charlie Martin, Nick Potts June Wang, Kate Young, Steve Cohn,

Xuanyong Xu, Hal Cole, Dean Lauritsen, Joe VanAndel

Cost-effective dropsonde observations to fill critical gaps in coverage

over oceanic and remote regions over days to months

Iridium Satellite

Driftsonde Gondola

Ground station for communication and control (web based remote operation)

Gondola capacity of 54 dropsondes

Float altitude ~18 to 30 km

Large Zero-pressure or Super-pressure Balloon, aloft for days to months

Sonde measures • Pressure • Temperature • Relative humidity • Wind

Sondes dropped on command or a pre-programmed schedule

Driftsonde Concept

Driftsonde Gondola

© 2011 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

3

• MIST Sonde Capacity: 56 units

• Mass: ~24kg

• Size: 71 cm x 71 cm x 45 cm

• Power: Lithium SO2 Batteries

• Solar Panel Heaters for batteries and electronics

• Construction: Blue Core Foam

• Operational Life: ~ 6+ weeks

• Automated Sounding System

• Iridium Satellite Communications (Global coverage)

• System Health Engineering Monitoring

o Position & Velocity - GPS Receiver

o Pressure Sensor

o Battery voltages

o Solar Panel voltage

o Component Temperatures

Top View

Gondola Illustration

© 2011 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 4

System Electronics

Lithium Batteries

Battery & Elect. Heater

Iridium Modem

MIST Sondes

GPS & Iridium Antenna

400 MHz Sonde Antenna

Solar Panels for Heater

NOT TO SCALE

Harness

Miniature In-situ Sounding Technology (MIST Sonde)


MIST Sonde Specifications: Size: 30.5 cm height x 4.40 cm (12" height x 1.75” diameter) Mass: 182 grams Fall time: ~ 17 minutes from 60 mb Fall Velocity: ~40 m/s @ 60 mb ~10 m/s @ sea surface Sensors based upon Vaisala RS-92 radiosonde sensor module

Temperature [range: +60° C to -90° C, resolution 0.1°] Humidity [range: 0 to 100%, resolution 1%] Pressure [range: 1080 mb to 3 mb, resolution 0.1 mb] 0.5 sec (2 Hz) update rate for PTH sensors

Winds based upon OEM GPS receiver 0.1 m/s resolution 0.25 sec (4 Hz) update rate for wind data

High Vertical Resolution of PTH & wind data Stable cone parachute design Remote control of Power On/Off and sonde release Designed for extreme environmental conditions Communications: Operates on multiple frequencies 403-406 MHz

MIST Sonde

Driftsonde WEB Interface Control and Data Display


Capabilities • Schedule Sonde releases • Set Drop Limits • Table of sonde release

location and drop times • Sounding data files • Sondes Available for release • Log of ALL commands sent to

gondola • Google Earth Maps- Track • Iridium communications

history • WEB database of all

soundings • Password protected site, with

limited to full use privileges Engineering health of gondola • System (battery) Voltages • GPS Position & Velocity • Flight Pressure • Temperature monitoring

Concordiasi Sonde release locations


September 23 to December 8, 2010 648 Sondes

Gondola Internal Temperature


Gondola Battery Voltages


Iridium Communications Reliability


Drop Success Rate


# Flight Total Sondes Ignored Drops Good Drops Bad Drops % of Good drops

1 MSD01 52 2 47 3 94%

2 MSD02 51 2 48 1 98%

3 MSD04 51 0 49 2 96%

4 MSD05 52 1 51 0 100%

5 MSD06 51 3 47 1 98%

6 MSD07 51 4 47 0 100%

7 MSD09 51 1 50 0 100%

8 MSD10 51 0 48 3 92%

9 MSD03 54 0 53 1 98%

10 MSD11 54 0 52 2 96%

11 MSD13 54 1 53 0 100%

12 MSD12 54 0 53 1 98%

13 MSD08 47 1 46 0 100%

Total 673 15 644 14 98%

Gondola Operational Lifetime


# Flight Launch Date Cutdown Date Flight Days

Cause of Termination

1 MSD01 2010-09-23 00:15 UTC 2010-12-11 01Z 81.7 Balloon moved too far north

2 MSD02 2010-09-23 04:00 UTC 2010-11-18 16Z 56.8 MER

3 MSD03 2010-10-15 04:30 UTC 2010-11-04 13Z 27.5 MER

4 MSD04 2010-09-24 00:20 UTC 2010-12-27 10Z 94.7 MER

5 MSD05 2010-09-25 03:04 UTC 2010-12-22 15Z 88.8 MER

6 MSD06 2010-09-28 22:11 UTC 2010-11-10 23Z 43.7 Batteries

7 MSD07 2010-09-30 02:12 UTC 2010-12-09 12Z 70.6 Balloon Burst





12 MSD12 2010-10-20 21:20 UTC 2011-01-23 17Z 85.6 Balloon Moved too far North


Sonde Performance monitored during the campaign


Cause MSD # 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 Totals % of Problems

Bank Ping Fail 13 13 12 38 33%

Data in Wrong Place 2 2 3 1 1 5 1 1 2 4 4 7 33 29%

Disconnected Battery 2 2 1 5 3 13 11%

Data Queued to resend 1 2 1 1 1 6 5%

Partial Sounding 2 2 1 5 4%

Communication Error 1 1 1 1 1 5 4%

Ejected at Launch 1 1 1 1 4 4%

Zero Length Bin File 1 1 1 3 3%

Sounding Application Crash 1 1 2 2%

Sonde Stuck in Gondola 1 1 2 2%

Sonde Dead Battery 1 1 1%

Parsing Error on Ground 1 1 1%

Data Corrupt on Ground 1 1 1%

Cutdown hook broke before launch

1 1 1%

Total Number of Problems 21 7 4 5 4 13 7 2 14 6 6 18 8 115


MSD11: 10/19-12/29/2010

Coast

High Plateau

Coast

Transit

Plots courtesy of June Wang

Overall Sounding Statistics after post processing


# / % Notes

Total sounding files 648 Total files retrieved on ground

Partial data 9 / 1.4% Either no sonde data or only ~10-20 hPa data at the top

Final quality controlled data set

639/648 or 99% Data files

Other issues

No Temperature and Humidity

11/ 1.7% With sensor cover, 7 for MSD06, 4 for MSD10

No wind data 3 / <1% No GPS data: 2, fast fall: 1

Overall Project 639/678 or 94% 678 sondes initially loaded into gondolas

Conclusion • Very satisfied with results • Review testing of gondola hardware for temperature issues (cabling and sondes) • Review of gondola and ground software for improved performance

concordiasi driftsonde performance

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