ACCURACY ANALYSIS OF RUBSONDE-GPS WIND SOUNDING SYSTEM

The results of a program to estimate the limiting accuracy of atmosphe ric wind profiles obtained by tracking a new balloon, the Rubsonde, wi th the Global Positioning System (GPS) are presented. In the first par t, the authors detail the data processing and find the total precision of wind measurements in the case of a Rubsonde tracked by a very high resolution centimetric radar, the Aquitaine, is as low as 0.3 m s(-1) for wind measurements over 25-m layers. In the second part, the Rubso nde-GPS wind measurements are compared with those of the Jimsphere tra cked by the Aquitaine, and it is found that the instrumental accuracie s are the same. The difference between these two 25-m atmospheric wind profiles, separated by a 10-min time interval, is found to be less th an 0.6 m s(-1). The validity of the Rubsonde-GPS system for measuring wind variability is then demonstrated.