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FEASIBILITY OF METRAC SYSTEM FOR REGIONAL AIR POLLUTION STUDY
Citation:
Johnson, R., K. Gage, W. Jasperson, R. Rust, AND R. Kirchner. FEASIBILITY OF METRAC SYSTEM FOR REGIONAL AIR POLLUTION STUDY. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/650/4-74/051.
Description:
METRAC is a ground-based radio location system which employs the Doppler Principle to track an inexpensive, lightweight, expendable transmitter. The transmitter can be attached to a vertically rising balloon in order to obtain an accurate, high-resolution, sounding of the atmospheric wind field. Alternatively, the transmitter can be attached to a horizontally free-floating balloon in order to determine atmospheric trajectories. This report documents the results of a study to test the feasibility of employing the METRAC approach for collecting upper air data in support of the Regional Air Pollution Study (RAPS) Program being conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in St. Louis. The major portion of this report contains an engineering description of the prototype METRAC system that was fabricated for this feasibility study. The report includes a presentation of results from a field test conducted in Minneapolis that consisted of a comparison of wind profiles obtained from METRAC with profiles obtained by simultaneously tracking the same balloon with a theodolite and a rawinsonde system.