Assessment of Forward Sensing Turbulence Detection for Stratospheric Flight*

An infrasonic sensor and a multi-hole pressure probe were used aboard a balloon-launched uncrewed stratospheric glider to measure turbulence at altitudes of up to 30 km in a series of three flights. The results demonstrate the feasibilty of this approach to gather high resolution statistics over a large altitude range. A primary focus of this experiment is the examination of turbulence indicators calculated using the traditional in-situ sensor as well as the infrasonic microphone in order to validate the ability of the aircraft's sensors to measure turbulence. Additional work was conducted to examine the potential for these sensors to be used for the forward-sensing detection of turbulence.