Programmable data acquisition system for research measurements from meteorological radiosondes

Harrison, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0693-347X, Nicoll, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5580-6325 and Lomas, A. (2012) Programmable data acquisition system for research measurements from meteorological radiosondes. Review of Scientific Instruments, 83 (3). 036106. ISSN 0034-6748 doi: 10.1063/1.3697717

Abstract/Summary

A programmable data acquisition system to allow novel use of meteorological radiosondes for atmospheric science measurements is described. In its basic form it supports four analogue inputs at 16 bit resolution, and up to two further inputs at lower resolution configurable instead for digital instruments. It also provides multiple instrument power supplies (+8V, +16V, +5V and -8V) from the 9V radiosonde battery. During a balloon flight encountering air temperatures from +17°C to -66°C, the worst case voltage drift in the 5V unipolar digitisation circuitry was 20mV. The system liberates a new range of low cost atmospheric research measurements, by utilising radiosondes routinely launched internationally for weather forecasting purposes. No additional receiving equipment is required. Comparisons between the specially instrumented and standard meteorological radiosondes show negligible effect of the additional instrumentation on the standard meteorological data.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/32240
Identification Number/DOI	10.1063/1.3697717
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	atmospheric techniques, balloons, data acquisition, meteorological instruments, microcontrollers, radiosondes, remote sensing, weather forecasting
Publisher	AIP
Publisher Statement	Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
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