Acoustic sounding of wind velocity profiles in a stratified moving atmosphere

The paper deals with analytical and numerical studies of the effects of atm ospheric stratification on acoustic remote sensing of wind velocity profile s by sodars. Both bistatic and monostatic schemes are considered. Formulas for the Doppler shift of an acoustic echo signal scattered by atmospheric t urbulence advected with the mean wind in a stratified moving atmosphere are derived. Numerical studies of these formulas show that errors in retrievin g wind velocity can be of the order of 1 m/s if atmospheric stratification is ignored. Formulas for the height at which wind velocity is retrieved are also derived. Approaches are proposed which allow one to take into account the effects of atmospheric stratification when restoring the wind velocity profile from measured values of the Doppler shift and the time interval of acoustic impulse propagation from a sodar to the scattering volume and bac k to the ground. (C) 2001 Acoustical Society of America.