John M. Noble
U.S. Army Res. Lab., Battlefield Environment Directorate, ATTN: AMSRL-BE-M, White Sands Missle Range, NM 88002
Sonic anemometers are good instruments for measuring temperature and wind speed fast enough to calculate the temperature and wind structure parameters used to calculate the variance in the acoustic index of refraction. The problem is how long of an average is needed to obtain a representative value of the strength of the turbulence field in the atmosphere. In addition to this problem, there are several problems associated with making point measurements and using them to represent a turbulence field. These problems will be examined by analyzing some of the sonic anemometer data from the Joint Acoustic Propagation Experiment (JAPE) conducted during July 1991 at DIRT site located at White Sands Missle Range, New Mexico. This experiment provides turbulence data from sonic anemometers at five heights for several hours a day over a period of approximately 2 weeks.