Characterize the Precision of the Wind Calibration Process for NOAA Hurricane Hunter Aircraft

NOAA’s P3 aircraft collect a diverse suite of atmospheric data in weather from the tropics to high latitudes. One of the most critical in-situ data sets collected is wind speed and direction. To ensure the accuracy and precision of the wind measurements, wind calibration flights are flown routinely. Elements of the wind calibration process require a subjective assessment by the scientist. This research effort characterizes the errors associated with the subjective elements of the wind calibration process in an attempt to identify how these errors influence the precision of a given wind calibration solution. Starting with a base set of nine wind calibration flight cases, a larger data set of forty-three cases was generated. A statistical analysis was then accomplished on these forty-three cases, which revealed that the variance between the wind calibration solutions was very small and a majority of the derived wind calibration solutions fell within one standard deviation of the mean of the forty-three cases. The precision, by which the subjective elements of the wind calibration process can be duplicated by a scientist, highlights the need for NOAA’s AOC to consider using the mean Angel of Attack (AoA) and Slip Angle (SA) slopes and intercepts derived in this research effort to replace their current wind calibration AoA and SA values.