Stratospheric wind shear computed from satellite thermal sounder measurements

The successful operation of thermal sounders on meteorological satellites has provided the atmospheric scientist with a new tool for observing atmospheric structures. This report discusses the application of these measurements to determination of wind shears in the altitude range of 15 to 30 km. During calendar year 1975 an experiment was conducted at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM, to determine the feasibility of using thermal sounder data to compute stratospheric wind shear. Radiosonde observations were taken nearly simultaneously with the overpass of the NOAA-4 satellite. Observations from three radiosonde releases were averaged to provide the in situ data. These results were compared to thermal winds computed from the satellite measurements. Results of this experiment are presented and discussed.