Intercomparsion of wind measurements at adjacent test grid locations

The Test Grid project is investigating a new location for one of the major test grids at U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground (DPG). In support of this effort, two identical sets of meteorological instrumentation were deployed from December 2008 through November 2009. One set of instruments was deployed on the original test grid, and a second set was deployed at the proposed new location, approximately 1 km northwest. This study compares the wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and relative humidity differences between the two locations by analyzing the differences in the measurements recorded at both locations.

The instrumentation inaccuracy and alignment errors were incorporated into the analysis. The mean and standard deviation of the differences between locations was calculated. Additionally, the percentage of difference, which is within instrumental accuracy, was also examined. Over the 4-month winter period of measurement, the differences between the two test grid locations were found to be comparable to instrument error indicating that there were no operational differences in the meteorological conditions.