Eddy Dissipation Rate Performance of the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) Sensor During the 2003 Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign

NASA Langley Research Center and its research partners from the University of North Dakota (UND) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) participated in the Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign (ATReC) flights from November 17 to December 17, 2003. ATReC provided the opportunity to compare Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) sensor's eddy dissipation rate (EDR) data taken on-board the UND Citation II aircraft with two other sources: calculations made at NCAR using high-rate data from the Citation of EDR in each wind component, and EDR measurements from the Citation's on-board EDR system. Both on-board systems (TAMDAR and UND) assume that turbulence is isotropic. In both on-board systems EDR is calculated using an implementation of the MacCready algorithm that is applied to the fluctuating longitudinal component of the wind. This study entails a statistical analysis of EDR for over 21 separate flights as well as detailed analysis of selected significant turbulence encounters.