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Prevailing and Tidal Wind Shears in the E Region
Author(s) -
Hines C. O.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/rds196612169
Subject(s) - dusk , atmospheric sciences , geodesy , meteorology , mathematics , wind speed , geology , climatology , geography , physics , astronomy
Winds revealed by 29 sodium vapor trails, as reported by Manring et al. [1964], have been analyzed to determine prevailing and tidal components at heights of 90–130 km. This was accomplished for each of several levels in turn, by averaging separately the winds observed at dawn and at dusk; the difference between the two average values was attributed to the diurnal component, which would be roughly in antiphase at dawn relative to dusk, while the mean of the two average values was attributed to a prevailing wind plus a semidiurnal component. The results of the analysis are depicted in the accompanying figure, which gives hodographs of the half‐difference and the half‐sum of the dawn and dusk averages. The probable errors of the averages are estimated to be about 12 m/s, and the probable errors of the points plotted in the hodographs are therefore about 17 m/s. The nature of the analysis and its limitations are discussed more fully in a paper now in press [Hines, 1966].