Measuring High Altitude Wind
 
 
At major airports and air stations all over the world wind velocity, direction, temperature and dew point measurements are made by balloons released at midnight and noon each day. Data is transmitted back to the ground for readings made every few hundred meters as the balloon rises. NOAA makes these figures available on the Web for all world sites right after the readings are taken, as do other agencies around the world.

The downloaded NOAA sheet below which we have annotated shows these readings for one day at the Miramar Naval Air Station the day before this text was written. It happened that wind velocities were above average for this date at San Diego. However, it is typical in that wind velocity within a few hundred feet of the ground almost never approaches that available at some higher altitude at any location. The notes on this sheet explain what the various columns of figures used in the computer calculations mean.A link to the NOAA site to select your own examples is: NOAA Radiosonde Data On the following link you will find helpful tips on some great graphical displays of this and other NOAA data: Additional NOAA Wind Data. You can probably find a site near your location in one of these available data sets.

 






NOAA Radiosonde Wind and Other Data

   

 

 

 

 


Miramar Station ID (San Diego)
 
              254      0     27      NOV    2001

Wind Velocity in tenths of meters per second  (m/s) 3.1 m/s = 6.9 mph. Speed too low for wind turbine even though too high an altitude for a tower mounted wind turbine
 
                 1   3190  72293  32.87 -117.15    134  99999

                 2    100   1730   2000     83  99999      3

                 3           NKX                    4     ms

Altitude of  balloon at reading pertaining to data on this line in meters (793)
 
                 9  10010    134    158     48    300     46

                 4  10000    141    156     46    300     46

                 6   9807    304  99999  99999    305     31

                 6   9455    609  99999  99999    315     26

                 5   9410    649     98      8  99999  99999

                 4   9250    793     94    -46    320     36

                 6   9115    914  99999  99999    325     36

                 5   8860   1147     66   -134  99999  99999

Wind Direction

In degrees  West = 270

320 = NW
 

Pressure in tenths of millibars (9250)
 
                 6   8783   1219  99999  99999    325     72

                 4   8500   1487     50   -160    320     87

                 5   8210   1768     28   -142  99999  99999

                 6   8149   1828  99999  99999    310     98

                 6   7844   2133  99999  99999    315    103

                 6   7551   2438  99999  99999    320    123

                 6   7269   2743  99999  99999    315    154

Temperature in tenths of degrees Celsius (94)
 
                 4   7000   3045    -25   -105    315    175

                 5   6660   3438    -35   -235  99999  99999

21.6 m/s = 48.3 mph  The 4267 meter altitude is below 15,000 feet yet wind power is very high, although unusually high for San Diego
 
                 6   6475   3657  99999  99999    310    159

                 6   6227   3962  99999  99999    310    159

                 5   6140   4071    -91   -291  99999  99999

                 6   5986   4267  99999  99999    315    216

                 5   5940   4326   -107   -287  99999  99999

Dew Point

(-46) Celsius
 
                 5   5570   4817   -123   -513  99999  99999

                 6   5527   4876  99999  99999    310    355

                 5   5360   5110   -113   -493  99999  99999

                 6   5102   5486  99999  99999    310    437

“99999” means that for some reason given parameter not measured
 
                 5   5080   5519   -135   -425  99999  99999

                 4   5000   5650   -123   -453    310    432

44.8m/s =100.2 mph This 7620 meter altitude was the highest below 29,000 feet at which wind speed was measured that day. While this speed is exceptional , high winter velocities at this latitude are normal, yet less high than farther north.
 
                 5   4930   5757   -129   -429  99999  99999

                 6   4709   6096  99999  99999    305    437

                 4   4000   7300   -271   -321    300    417

                 6   3992   7315  99999  99999    300    417

                 5   3850   7574   -291   -323  99999  99999

                 6   3825   7620  99999  99999    300    448

                 5   3380   8488   -365   -435  99999  99999

                 5   3120   9036   -405   -454  99999  99999

                 6   3072   9144  99999  99999    305    576

                 4   3000   9310   -419   -479    305    597

                 6   2806   9753  99999  99999    310    705

                 8   2620  10208  99999  99999    310    710

                 4   2500  10520   -517   -587    310    684

                 6   2443  10668  99999  99999    310    669

                 6   2329  10972  99999  99999    310    653

                 6   2017  11887  99999  99999    315    468

                 4   2000  11940   -603   -673    315    463

                 7   2000  11940   -603   -673    315    463

                 6   1921  12192  99999  99999    310    442

Radiosonde balloon flight weather measurements are made at selected airports, air stations and other sites all over the world at midnight and noon each day and may be observed and/or downloaded using  the web at  raob.fsl.noaa.gov almost immediately thereafter for that day as well as for earlier periods going back for many years.

 
                 6   1743  12801  99999  99999    305    556