Computerized sodar for network measurements of planetary boundary layer structure

Abstract

Local or regional scale analysis of planetary, boundary structure, such as is required for gravity wave or mixing depth analyses, can be greatly facilitated by using a network of sodar systems. Such a network will typically include three to twenty acoustic sounders and some supplementary sensors such as sensitive electronic microbarographs. Use of network observations is greatly simplified if the distributed sodars are controlled by the measurements logged on the display at a central minicomputer. This paper presents an inexpensive, telephone network system designed for sodar control and data acquisition. The combination digital and analog signal transmission was optimized for telephone transmission of sodar control and signal data. Features include automatic answering and hangup, simultaneous sodar triggering, data acquisition from all network sites, and automatic remote calibration of the interface system. The system requires only the availability of a standard‐voice Bell system compatible circuit.