Polar Winds

The Tropospheric Wind Lidar Technology Experiment (TWiLiTE) is an airborne lidar system used to profile tropospheric winds. It measures lidar backscatter at 355 nm to retrieve wind profiles from the surface up to 18 km. TWiLiTE has a vertical resolution of 250 meters and a pulse repetition frequency of 200 Hz. It was designed for autonomous operations on high-altitude aircraft such as the NASA ER-2 and WB-57.

The Doppler Aerosol WiNd Lidar (DAWN) is an airborne lidar developed by NASA Langley Research Center. DAWN uses a pulsed, solid-state laser operating at a wavelength of 2 micrometers to detect aerosol backscatter in the atmosphere. It also provides vertical profiles of horizontal winds below the aircraft and line-of-sight winds at each azimuth angle. Typically, DAWN delivers profiles with a resolution of 60 m and emits pulses at a rate of 10 Hz.

Dropsondes, also known as dropwindsondes, are in situ instruments designed to be released from aircraft. They are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and sensors to collect profile measurements of pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. Dropsondes are important during field investigations because they enable researchers to collect vertical profiles in remote locations and during severe weather conditions. Typically, dropsondes have a vertical resolution of 5 meters and provide wind speed and direction measurements every 0.25 seconds, while temperature, pressure, and humidity are recorded every 0.5 seconds.