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81-793: The WAC Corporal was the first sounding rocket developed in the United States and the first vehicle to achieve hypersonic speeds . It was an offshoot of the Corporal program , that was started by a partnership between the United States Army Ordnance Corps and the California Institute of Technology (named "ORDCIT") in June 1944 with the ultimate goal of developing a military ballistic missile. The California Institute of Technology had been fostering

162-683: A radio direction finder or GPS . The weight of a radiosonde is typically 250 g (8.8 oz). Sometimes radiosondes are deployed by being dropped from an aircraft instead of being carried aloft by a balloon. Radiosondes deployed in this way are called dropsondes . Radiosondes weather balloons have conventionally been used as means of measuring atmospheric profiles of humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed and direction. High-quality, spatially and temporally “continuous” data from upper-air monitoring along with surface observations are critical bases for understanding weather conditions and climate trends and providing weather and climate information for

243-492: A radio frequency of 403 MHz or 1680 MHz. A radiosonde whose position is tracked as it ascends to give wind speed and direction information is called a rawinsonde ("radar wind -sonde"). Most radiosondes have radar reflectors and are technically rawinsondes. A radiosonde that is dropped from an airplane and falls, rather than being carried by a balloon is called a dropsonde . Radiosondes are an essential source of meteorological data, and hundreds are launched all over

324-481: A research rocket or a suborbital rocket , is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to launch instruments from 48 to 145 km (30 to 90 miles) above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites ; the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 km (25 miles) and

405-890: A 1943 paper "A Review and Preliminary Analysis of Long-Range Rocket Projectiles" by Malina and Hsue-Shen Tsien . Design was started by Frank Malina and Homer Joe Stewart to meet the Signal Corps' request with their study "Considerations of the Feasibility of Developing a 100,000-ft. Altitude Rocket." The final design work was done by a team of persons specializing in particular areas and involved significant efforts to derive performance from theoretical means (a relatively new method for America rocketry). The key persons responsible were M.M. Mills (booster), P.J. Meeks (sounding rocket), W.A. Sandburg and W.B. Barry (launcher and WAC nose), S.J. Goldberg (field tests) and H.J. Stewart (external ballistics) and G, Emmerson (photography). For propulsion,

486-536: A Sounding Rocket such as the Nike-Apache may deposit sodium clouds to observe very high altitude winds. Larger, higher altitude rockets have multiple stages to increase altitude and/or payload capability. The freefall part of the flight is an elliptic trajectory with vertical major axis allowing the payload to appear to hover near its apogee . The average flight time is less than 30 minutes; usually between five and 20 minutes. The rocket consumes its fuel on

567-501: A blind landing system for airplanes. The organization led by Diamond eventually (in 1992) became a part of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory . In 1937, Diamond, along with his associates Francis Dunmore and Wilbur Hinmann, Jr., created a radiosonde that employed audio-frequency subcarrier modulation with the help of a resistance-capacity relaxation oscillator. In addition, this NBS radiosonde was capable of measuring temperature and humidity at higher altitudes than conventional radiosondes at

648-466: A computer that stores all the variables in real time. The first radiosondes were observed from the ground with a theodolite , and gave only a wind estimation by the position. With the advent of radar by the Signal Corps it was possible to track a radar target carried by the balloons with the SCR-658 radar . Modern radiosondes can use a variety of mechanisms for determining wind speed and direction, such as

729-591: A failure on the V-2. Bumper 7 and 8, the last two flights of the Bumper program, were the first launches from the new Joint Long-Range Proving Ground at Cocoa Beach, Florida , which would later be known as Cape Canaveral . The reason for the move was the intention to use a depressed trajectory to achieve velocities in the vicinity of Mach 7 from 120,000 to 150,000 feet (37 to 46 km). This would entail flights downrange in excess of 250 miles (400 km), which would exceed

810-545: A group of rocket engineers in the 1930s at their Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT) including Frank Malina , Jack Parsons , and Edward Forman . They became known as the "suicide squad" because so many of their early experiments at the Laboratory blew up. Some of the GALCIT enthusiasts had founded a business to manufacture rocket motors called Aerojet . During the first years of World War II , GALCIT had pursued

891-521: A popular standard because of its simplicity and because it converted sensor readings to Morse code , making it easy to use without special equipment or training. Working with a modified Molchanov sonde, Sergey Vernov was the first to use radiosondes to perform cosmic ray readings at high altitude. On April 1, 1935, he took measurements up to 13.6 km (8.5 mi) using a pair of Geiger counters in an anti-coincidence circuit to avoid counting secondary ray showers. This became an important technique in

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972-528: A separate system for recovering the Signal Corps radiosonde payload. The production of the WAC Corporal was by Douglas Aircraft Corporation with critical parts supplied by JPL and the engines by Aerojet. The WAC Corporal test program began at White Sands Proving Grounds in late September 1945 with a series of booster tests lofting dummy upper stages. These were the first missiles launched at White Sands. They were launched from what became LC-33, which

1053-524: A small Liquid-propellant rocket to provide the GALCIT team necessary experience to aid in developing the Corporal missile. Malina with Tsien Hsue-shen ( Qian Xuesen in Pinyin transliteration), wrote "Flight analysis of a Sounding Rocket with Special Reference to Propulsion by Successive Impulses." As the Signal Corps rocket was being developed for the Corporal project, and lacked any guidance mechanism, it

1134-425: A small parachute on the radiosonde's support line may slow its descent to Earth, while some rely on the aerodynamic drag of the shredded remains of the balloon, and the very light weight of the package itself. A typical radiosonde flight lasts 60 to 90 minutes. One radiosonde from Clark Air Base , Philippines, reached an altitude of 155,092 ft (47,272 m). The modern radiosonde communicates via radio with

1215-511: A sounding rocket also makes launching from temporary sites possible, allowing field studies at remote locations, and even in the middle of the ocean, if fired from a ship. Weather observations, up to an altitude of 75 km, are done with rocketsondes , a kind of sounding rocket for atmospheric observations that consists of a rocket and radiosonde . The sonde records data on temperature , moisture , wind speed and direction, wind shear , atmospheric pressure , and air density during

1296-556: A survey or a poll". Sounding in the rocket context is equivalent to "taking a measurement". The basic elements of a modern sounding rocket are a solid-fuel rocket motor and a science payload . In certain Sounding Rockets the payload may even be nothing more than a smoke trail as in the Nike Smoke which is used to determine wind directions and strengths more accurately than may be determined by weather balloons . Or

1377-554: A tiny fraction of the altitudes the WAC Corporal regularly achieved. It was decided on November 9, 1945, to alter the WAC Corporal design to improve upon it for another series of flights. This redesigned rocket was first deemed "Sergeant" in keeping with the JPL naming scheme but was soon renamed WAC Corporal B. The name "Sergeant" was later used for a solid propellant missile designed for the United States Army at JPL. Design of

1458-625: Is – according to Article 1.50 of the ITU Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as "A radiocommunication service used for meteorological, including hydrological, observations and exploration. Furthermore, according to article 1.109 of the ITU RR: A radiosonde is an automatic radio transmitter in the meteorological aids service usually carried on an aircraft , free balloon , kite or parachute, and which transmits meteorological data. Each radio transmitter shall be classified by

1539-469: The Bumper program as the second stage atop captured V-2 missiles in early air-light and staging experiments. For Bumper, the WAC Corporal was modified to provide stability in excess of Mach 5 by increasing the number of fins to four and increasing their size. The WAC Corporal had to be modified so that the engine ignition would be initiated by the integrating accelerometer of the V-2 stage just before cutoff of

1620-728: The Soviet Union 's Vega program , the two Venus probes, Vega 1 and Vega 2 , each dropped a radiosonde into the atmosphere of Venus . The sondes were tracked for two days. Although modern remote sensing by satellites, aircraft and ground sensors is an increasing source of atmospheric data, none of these systems can match the vertical resolution (30 m (98 ft) or less) and altitude coverage (30 km (19 mi)) of radiosonde observations, so they remain essential to modern meteorology. Although hundreds of radiosondes are launched worldwide each day year-round, fatalities attributed to radiosondes are rare. The first known example

1701-584: The Veronique (rocket) was began in 1949, it was not until 1952 that the first full scale Veronique was launched. Veronique variants were flown until 1974. The Monica (rocket) family, an all solid fueled which was pursued in a number of versions and later replaced by the ONERA. series of rockets. Japan was another early user with the Kappa (rocket) . Japan also pursued Rockoons. The People's Republic of China

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1782-844: The WAC Corporal , Aerobee , and Viking . The German V-2 served both the US and the USSR's R-1 missile as sounding rockets during the immediate Post World War II periods. During the 1950s and later the inexpensive availability of surplus military boosters such as those used by the Nike , Talos , Terrier , and Sparrow . Since the 1960s designed for the purpose rockets such as the Black Brant series have dominated sounding rockets, though often having additional stages, many from military surplus. The earliest attempts at developing Sounding Rockets were in

1863-619: The World Meteorological Organisation which stated that "the situation in Africa shows a dramatic decrease of almost 50% from 2015 to 2020 in the number of radiosonde flights, the most important type of surface-based observations. Reporting now has poorer geographical coverage". Over the last two decades, some 82% of the countries in Africa have experienced severe (57%) and moderate (25%) radiosonde data gap. This dire situation has prompted call for urgent need to fill

1944-500: The atmosphere . The maximum altitude to which the balloon ascends is determined by the diameter and thickness of the balloon. Balloon sizes can range from 100 to 3,000 g (3.5 to 105.8 oz). As the balloon ascends through the atmosphere, the pressure decreases, causing the balloon to expand. Eventually, the balloon will expand to the extent that its skin will break, terminating the ascent. An 800 g (28 oz) balloon will burst at about 21 km (13 mi). After bursting,

2025-473: The exoatmospheric region between 97 and 201 km (60 and 125 miles). The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary to sound , which is to throw a weighted line from a ship into the water to measure the water's depth. The term itself has its etymological roots in the Romance languages word for probe , of which there are nouns sonda and sonde and verbs like sondear which means "to do

2106-443: The first stage of the rising part of the flight, then often separates and falls away, leaving the payload to complete the arc, sometimes descending under a drag source such as a small balloon or a parachute . Sounding rockets have utilized balloons, airplanes and artillery as "first stages." Project Farside utilized a Rockoon composed of a 106,188-m3 (3,750-ft3) balloon, lifting a four stage rocket composed of 4 Recrute rockets as

2187-485: The radiocommunication service in which it operates permanently or temporarily. The allocation of radio frequencies is provided according to Article 5 of the ITU Radio Regulations (edition 2012). In order to improve harmonisation in spectrum utilisation, the majority of service-allocations stipulated in this document were incorporated in national Tables of Frequency Allocations and Utilisations which

2268-470: The 38ALDW-1500 Aerojet liquid-fueled engine was chosen, which had been developed as a JATO system for Navy flying boats. The 38ALDW-1500 was modified for hypergolic propellants, with red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer and furfuryl alcohol as the fuel. The WAC Corporal was intended to use a booster derived from the Tiny Tim air-to-ground attack rocket to gain sufficient speed along a launch tower for

2349-953: The AJ10-137 Service Propulsion System on the Apollo spacecraft, and the AJ10-190 that acted as the Space Shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System . WAC Corporals are on display at the National Air and Space Museum and in the White Sands Missile Range Museum . The origin of the acronym "WAC" in WAC Corporal has been claimed to stand for multiple different phrases. Some White Sands historians (Kennedy, DeVorkin, Eckles) have claimed it means "Without Attitude Control". In "Bumper 8: 50th Anniversary of

2430-729: The Aerobee ultimately powered the second stage of the Vanguard (rocket) , the first designed for the purpose Satellite Launch Vehicle , Vanguard. The AJ10 engine used by many Aerobees eventually evolved into the AJ10-190 which formed the Orbital Maneuvering System of the Space Shuttle. The Viking (rocket) was intended from the start by the Navy not only to be a sounding rocket capable of replacing, even exceeding

2511-442: The Corporal's 25-pound (11 kg) payload. In terms of pounds to altitude per dollar, the Corporal also lost to the competition: Each WAC Corporal B cost US$ 8,000 (equivalent to $ 109,200 in 2023), for $ 320/lb to apogee, while each V-2 reassembled from captured parts cost around $ 30,000 ($ 14/lb), and the Aerobee cost $ 18,500 ($ 123/lb). While the WAC Corporal was soon replaced in its intended role of sounding rocket, its legacy

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2592-508: The Corporal's three tail fins to provide passive stability. Despite the emphasis upon a theoretical approach, it was deemed necessary to empirically prove the Corporal's aerodynamics, especially the three fin configuration, so a solid propellant one-fifth scale model called the Baby WAC was tested from a scaled-down launcher in July 1945. Four Baby WACs were flown. The design of the WAC Corporal

2673-401: The Corporal, named for the next Army enlisted rank, was a project originally named XF30L 20,000. The Corporal project envisioned a liquid propellant missile of 30-inch (760 mm) diameter and a power of 20,000 pounds-force (89 kN). The Signal Corps had created the requirement for a sounding rocket to carry 25 pounds (11 kg) of instruments to 100,000 feet (30 km) or higher. This

2754-515: The First Launch on Cape Canaveral, Group Oral History," William Pickering attributed it to "Women's Army Corps". The earliest public reports of the WAC designation are a series of Aviation Week articles, which seem to support "Women's Army Corps" being the derivation of the acronym. In its March 18, 1946 issue, Aviation Week noted, "[u]nder the amusing security code designation of 'WAC Corporal'

2835-458: The NBS radiosonde system included a pressure drive, which measured temperature and humidity as functions of pressure. It also gathered data on cloud thickness and light intensity in the atmosphere. Due to this and other improvements in cost (about $ 25), weight (> 1 kilogram), and accuracy, hundreds of thousands of NBS-style radiosondes were produced nationwide for research purposes, and the apparatus

2916-532: The SE corner of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland; Albemarle , (55.02, -1.88), NE England; and Lerwick , (60.139, -1.183), Shetland , Scotland . Raw upper air data is routinely processed by supercomputers running numerical models. Forecasters often view the data in a graphical format, plotted on thermodynamic diagrams such as Skew-T log-P diagrams , Tephigrams , and or Stüve diagrams , all useful for

2997-635: The Soviet Union. While all of the early rocket developers were concerned largely with developing the ability to launch rockets some had the objective of investigating the stratosphere and beyond. The All-Union Conference on the Study of Stratosphere was held in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1936. While the conference primarily dealt with balloon Radiosondes , there was a small group of rocket developers who sought to develop "recording rockets" to explore

3078-619: The U.S.S.R in Moscow designed the R-06 which eventually flew but not in the meteorological role. The early Soviet efforts to develop a sounding rocket were the earliest efforts to develop a sounding rocket and ultimately failed before WWII. P. I. Ivanov built a three-stage which flew in March 1946. At the end of summer 1946 development ended because it lacked sufficient thrust to loft a sufficient research payload. The first successful sounding rocket

3159-408: The V-2 engine. The WAC Corporal was spin-stabilized by two solid rockets placed between the oxidizer and fuel tanks. The Bumper/WAC had a payload capacity of 50 pounds and carried a Doppler transmitter/receiver which transmitted the nose cone temperature as well as velocity information. There were 6 Bumper flights from White Sands , the first two carrying solid-fueled dummy WACs. Flight number six had

3240-721: The V-2, but also to advance guided missile technology. The Viking was controlled by a multi-axis guidance system with gimbled Reaction Motors XLR10-RM-2 engine. The Viking was developed through two major versions. After the United States announced it intended to launch a satellite in the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958) the Viking was chosen as the first stage of the Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle. The last two Vikings were fired as Vanguard Test Vehicle 1 and 2. During

3321-468: The WAC Corporal B was initiated in March 1946 with P.J. Meeks as Project Coordinator, and differed significantly in detail while its basic shape remained the same. It was 4 inches (10 cm) longer, weighed 100 pounds (45 kg) less, and contained 40 pounds (18 kg) less propellant. The designs of the fuel pressurization system and fuel valves were simplified. It had a shorter engine with redesigned injectors weighed 12 pounds (5.4 kg), rather than

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3402-569: The boundaries of White Sands. The WAC/Bumper flights were: Bumper 7's WAC Corporal, the last one ever to fly, achieved Mach 9, the highest speed ever achieved by a projectile in the atmosphere at the time. The WAC Corporal found itself in direct competition in its designed role, with the V-2 offering much larger payload capabilities that became available in the General Electric-operated Hermes program in April 1946. It

3483-656: The course of investigations by the German peace movement , this cooperation was revealed by a group of physicists in 1983. The international discussion that was thus set in motion led to the development of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) at the level of G7 states. Since then, lists of technological equipment whose export is subject to strict controls have been drawn up within the MTCR framework. Radiosonde Radiosondes may operate at

3564-547: The data gap in Africa and globally. The vast data gap in such a large part the global landmass, home to some of the most vulnerable societies, the aforementioned call has galvanised a global effort to “plug the data gap” in the decade ahead and halt a further deterioration in the observation networks. According to the International Telecommunication Union , a meteorological aids service (also: meteorological aids radiocommunication service )

3645-572: The development of both solid and liquid-fueled Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO) boosters to aid aircraft take off performance. As the group had experimented with rockets for several years before the war they were selected by the Army to pursue ballistic rocket development. The first rocket designed by the group for the Army was designated as XFS10S100-A, also known as the Private , that being the first Army enlisted rank . The second ORDCIT project, which became

3726-451: The field, and Vernov flew his radiosondes on land and sea over the next few years, measuring the radiation's latitude dependence caused by the Earth's magnetic field . In 1936, the U.S. Navy assigned the U.S. Bureau of Standards (NBS) to develop an official radiosonde for the Navy to use. The NBS gave the project to Harry Diamond , who had previously worked on radio navigation and invented

3807-493: The first stage with 1 Recruit as the second stage, with 4 Arrow II motors composing the third stage and finally a single Arrow II as the fourth stage. Sparoair , air launched from Navy F4D and F-4 fighters were examples of air launched sounding rockets. There were also examples of artillery launched sounding rockets including Project HARP 's 5", 7", and 15" guns, sometimes having additional Martlet rocket stages. The earliest Sounding Rockets were liquid propellant rockets such as

3888-574: The first successful Sounding Rocket the WAC Corporal . By the early 1960s the Sounding Rocket was established technology. Sounding rockets are advantageous for some research because of their low cost, relatively short lead time (sometimes less than six months) and their ability to conduct research in areas inaccessible to either balloons or satellites. They are also used as test beds for equipment that will be used in more expensive and risky orbital spaceflight missions. The smaller size of

3969-521: The flight. Position data ( altitude and latitude / longitude ) may also be recorded. Common meteorological rockets are the Loki and Super Loki , typically 3.7 m tall and powered by a 10 cm diameter solid fuel rocket motor . The rocket motor separates at an altitude of 1500 m and the rest of the rocketsonde coasts to apogee (highest point). This can be set to an altitude of 20 km to 113 km. Sounding rockets are commonly used for: Due to

4050-399: The gross weight from 683 to 704 pounds (310 to 319 kg), with empty weights from 289 to 310 pounds (131 to 141 kg). The missions flown during the WAC Corporal first series were: Radar tracking was difficult, as above 90,000 feet (27 km) the radar return was too small to be detected, and radiosonde signals were not received. No previous American liquid-fueled rocket had exceeded

4131-664: The high military relevance of ballistic missile technology, there has always been a close relationship between sounding rockets and military missiles. It is a typical dual-use technology , which can be used for both civil and military purposes. During the Cold War , the Federal Republic of Germany cooperated on this topic with countries that had not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons at that time, such as Brazil, Argentina and India. In

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4212-501: The interpretation of the atmosphere's vertical thermodynamics profile of temperature and moisture as well as kinematics of vertical wind profile. Radiosonde data is a crucially important component of numerical weather prediction. Because a sonde may drift several hundred kilometers during the 90- to 120-minute flight, there may be concern that this could introduce problems into the model initialization. However, this appears not to be so except perhaps locally in jet stream regions in

4293-473: The link to the ground. Gustave Hermite and Georges Besançon , from France, were the first in 1892 to use a balloon to fly the meteograph. In 1898, Léon Teisserenc de Bort organized at the Observatoire de Météorologie Dynamique de Trappes the first regular daily use of these balloons. Data from these launches showed that the temperature lowered with height up to a certain altitude, which varied with

4374-448: The longer 50-pound (23 kg) engine of the WAC Corporal A. The drastically redesigned rocket body used separate tanks of dissimilar materials. Larger, lighter fins were supplied, which proved problematic on the first WAC Corporal B flight on December 6, 1946. The flights during the second series of WAC Corporal flights were: The WAC Corporal program was an extremely successful test program. The last 6 WAC Corporal Bs to fly were used in

4455-536: The magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere and mesosphere. Sounding rockets have been used for the examination of atmospheric nuclear tests by revealing the passage of the shock wave through the atmosphere. In more recent times Sounding Rockets have been used for other nuclear weapons research. Sounding rockets often use military surplus rocket motors. NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion , lifting 270–450-kg (600–1,000-pound) payloads into

4536-421: The minimum for satellites is approximately 121 km (75 miles). Certain sounding rockets have an apogee between 1,000 and 1,500 km (620 and 930 miles), such as the Black Brant X and XII , which is the maximum apogee of their class. For certain purposes Sounding Rockets may be flown to altitudes as high as 3,000 kilometers to allow observing times of around 40 minutes to provide geophysical observations of

4617-574: The observation times during the roughly two-hour ascent. Radiosonde observations are important for weather forecasting , severe weather watches and warnings , and atmospheric research. The United States National Weather Service launches radiosondes twice daily from 92 stations, 69 in the conterminous United States, 13 in Alaska, nine in the Pacific, and one in Puerto Rico. It also supports

4698-798: The operation of 10 radiosonde sites in the Caribbean . A list of U.S. operated land based launch sites can be found in Appendix C, U.S. Land-based Rawinsonde Stations of the Federal Meteorological Handbook #3, titled Rawinsonde and Pibal Observations, dated May 1997. The UK launches Vaisala RS41 radiosondes four times daily (an hour before 00, 06, 12, and 18 UTC) from 6 launch sites (south to north): Camborne , (lat,lon)=(50.218, -5.327), SW tip of England; Herstmonceux (50.89, 0.318), near SE coast; Watnall , (53.005, -1.25), central England; Castor Bay, (54.50, -6.34), near

4779-615: The post WWII era the USSR also pursued V-2 base sounding rockets. The last two R-1As were flown in 1949 as sounding rockets. They were followed between July 1951 and June 1956 by 4 R-1B, 2 R-1V, 3 R-1D and 5 R-1Es, and 1 R-1E (A-1). The improved V-2 descendant the R-2A could reach 120 miles and were flown between April 1957 and May 1962. Fifteen R-5Vs were flown from June 1965 to October 1983. Two R-5 VAOs were flown in September 1964 and October 1965. The first solid-fueled Soviet sounding rocket

4860-503: The project was initiated in 1944...." In the June 1, 1946 of Aviation Week , an article describes how the WAC Corporal "is launched from a triangular 100 ft. launching tower, and thereafter goes its own merry way," and claims that "[t]hese characteristics suggest some of the reasons for the female appellation of the 'WAC,' the 'Corporal' coming from the fact that some Army rockets are designated by familiar ranks." Sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde , sometimes called

4941-748: The results. After the start of WWII the CIT rocketry enthusiast found themselves involved in a number of defense programs, one of which, deemed Corporal, was intended to produce a bombardment guided missile the Corporal. Eventually known as the MGM-5 Corporal it became the first guided missile deployed by the US Army. During WWII the Signal Corps created a requirement for a sounding rocket to carry 25 pounds (11 kg) of instruments to 100,000 feet (30 km) or higher. To meet that goal Malina proposed

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5022-509: The season, and then stabilized above this altitude. De Bort's discovery of the tropopause and stratosphere was announced in 1902 at the French Academy of Sciences. Other researchers, like Richard Aßmann and William Henry Dines , were working at the same times with similar instruments. In 1924, Colonel William Blaire in the U.S. Signal Corps did the first primitive experiments with weather measurements from balloon, making use of

5103-643: The stratosphere and beyond. Amongst the speakers at the conference was Sergey Korolev who later became the leading figure of the Soviet space program. Specifically interested in sounding rocket design were V. V. Razumov, of the Leningrad Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion. A. I. Polyarny working in a special group within the Society for Assistance to the Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction of

5184-421: The stratosphere. This issue may in future be solved by weather drones , which have precise control over their location and can compensate for drift. Lamentably, in less developed parts of the globe such as Africa, which has high vulnerability to impacts of extreme weather events and climate change, there is paucity of surface- and upper-air observations. The alarming state of the issue was highlighted in 2020 by

5265-455: The temperature dependence of radio circuits. The first true radiosonde that sent precise encoded telemetry from weather sensors was invented in France by Robert Bureau  [ fr ] . Bureau coined the name "radiosonde" and flew the first instrument on January 7, 1929. Developed independently a year later, Pavel Molchanov flew a radiosonde on January 30, 1930. Molchanov's design became

5346-413: The time due to the use of electric sensors. In 1938, Diamond developed the first ground receiver for the radiosonde, which prompted the first service use of the NBS radiosondes in the Navy. Then in 1939, Diamond and his colleagues developed a ground-based radiosonde called the “remote weather station,” which allowed them to automatically collect weather data in remote and inhospitable locations. By 1940,

5427-781: The upper stage of the first two staged rocket the RTV-G-4 Bumper . Captured V-2s dominated American sounding rockets and other rocketry developments during the late 1940s. To meet the need for replacement a new sounding rocket was developed by the Aerojet Corporation to meet a requirement of the Applied Physics Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory . Over 1,000 Aerobees of various versions for varied customers were flow between 1947 and 1985. One engine produced for

5508-431: The welfare of societies. Reliable and timely information underpin society’s preparedness to extreme weather conditions and to changing climate patterns. Worldwide, there are about 1,300 radiosonde launch sites. Most countries share data with the rest of the world through international agreements. Nearly all routine radiosonde launches occur one hour before the official observation times of 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC to center

5589-432: The world daily. The first flights of aerological instruments were done in the second half of the 19th century with kites and meteographs , a recording device measuring pressure and temperature that would be recovered after the experiment. This proved difficult because the kites were linked to the ground and were very difficult to manoeuvre in gusty conditions. Furthermore, the sounding was limited to low altitudes because of

5670-566: Was Without Attitude Control. Thus it was named the WAC Corporal . The WAC Corporal served as the foundation of Sounding Rocketry in the USA. WAC Corporal was developed in two versions the second of which was much improved. After the war the WAC Corporal was in competition for sounding mission funding with the much larger captured V-2 rocket being tested by the U.S. Army. WAC Corporal was overshadowed at its job of cost-effectively lifting pounds of experiments to altitude, thus it effectively became obsolescent. WAC Corporals were later modified to become

5751-498: Was also in competition with the Aerobee, a direct descendant of the Corporal, which was tested in late 1947 and became fully operational in spring 1948. Another competitor was the Neptune sounding rocket, later known as the Viking. The V-2 could lift 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) to 128 miles (206 km), the Aerobee around 150 pounds (68 kg) to over 70 miles (110 km), and Viking 500 pounds (230 kg) to 100 miles (160 km). All three of these offered better performance than

5832-565: Was also the launch site for many other early missiles such as the V-2 , Viking and Hermes . These first launches tested not only the booster, but the launcher and firing controls, as well as providing practice for the radar and camera crews. October saw two launches of the WAC Corporal with one-third propellant load followed by six fully-fueled flights. Several of these flights reached altitudes of approximately 235,000 feet (72 km). Performance varied because of several factors, including variation in

5913-477: Was created at the California Institute of Technology , where before World War II there was a group of rocket enthusiasts led by Frank Malina , under the aegis of Theodore von Kármán , known amidst the people of the CIT as the "Suicide Squad." The immediate goal of the Suicide Squad was exploring the upper atmosphere which required developing the means of lofting instruments to high altitude and recovering

5994-412: Was innovative in that main structure containing the oxidizer, fuel, and pressurizing air tanks was of monocoque design, and that it had only three stabilizing fins, rather than the four that the Army preferred. Since the WAC Corporal was conceived as an atmospheric sounding rocket to be used in part near populated locations, it was provided with a parachute recovery system for the rocket itself, along with

6075-674: Was long-lasting. Its 38ALDW-1500 engine was the direct predecessor of the Nike Ajax's A21AL-2600 and Aerobee's 45AL-2600, and was developed into the AJ10 series , which includes the AJ10-37 engine on the second stage of the world's first purpose-built satellite launch vehicle, Vanguard. Other AJ10 series members include the AJ10-101, which powered the Able upper stage on a variety of launch vehicles,

6156-616: Was merged with a requirement of the Rocket R&;D Division of the Ordnance Corps for a test vehicle. Frank Joseph Malina of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) proposed the development of a liquid-fueled sounding rocket to meet this request, thus providing a practical developmental step towards the ultimate Corporal missile. The theoretical work setting the stage for the WAC Corporal was established in

6237-720: Was officially adopted by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Diamond was given the Washington Academy of Sciences Engineering Award in 1940 and the IRE Fellow Award (which was later renamed the Harry Diamond Memorial Award) in 1943 for his contributions to radio-meteorology. The expansion of economically important government weather forecasting services during the 1930s and their increasing need for data motivated many nations to begin regular radiosonde observation programs In 1985, as part of

6318-655: Was the M-100. Some 6640 M-100 sounding rockets were flown from 1957 to 1990. Other early users of Sounding Rockets were Britain, France and Japan. Great Britain developed the Skylark (rocket) series and the later Skua for the International Geophysical Year . France had begun the design of a Super V-2 but that program had been abandoned in the late 1940s due to the inability of France to manufacture all components necessary. Though development of

6399-411: Was the electrocution of a lineman in the United States who was attempting to free a radiosonde from high-tension power lines in 1943. In 1970, an Antonov 24 operating Aeroflot Flight 1661 suffered a loss of control after striking a radiosonde in flight resulting in the death of all 45 people on board. A rubber or latex balloon filled with either helium or hydrogen lifts the device up through

6480-541: Was the last nation to launch a new liquid fueled sounding rocket, the T-7. It was first fired from a very primitive launch site, where the "command center" and borrowed power generator were in a grass hut separated from the launcher by a small river. There was no communications equipment- not even a telephone between the command post and the rocket launcher. The T-7 led to the T-7M, T-7A, T-7A-S, T-7A-S2 and T-7/GF-01A. The T-7/ GF-01A

6561-772: Was used in 1969 to launch the FSW satellite technology development missions. Thus the I-7 led to the first Chinese satellite, the Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East is Red 1), launched by a DF-1. Vital to the development of Chinese rocketry and the Dong Feng-1 was Qian Xuesen (Tsien Hsue-shen in Wade Guiles transliteration) who with Theodore von Kármán and the California Institute of Technology "Suicide Squad" created

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