The TCEQ operates a network of lower atmospheric wind profilers,
including four radar and two sodar wind profilers. Wind
measurements from these profilers are used to determine the
transport of air pollution and to help validate model-generated
wind fields used for air quality modeling.
TCEQ Data
How It Works
The radar profilers transmit radio wave pulses into the
atmosphere and then record the resulting backscattered radio waves
to measure winds in the range from 137 meters (449 feet) to 3,601
meters (11,814 feet) above ground level. The sodar profilers
transmit sound pulses into the atmosphere and use the resulting
backscattered sound to measure winds in the range from about 50
meters (150 feet) to 500 meters (1,500 feet) above ground
level.
Real-time wind data plots are generated every 30 minutes from
the radar profilers and relayed to this Web site for display. The
plots show the last 12 hours of wind profiles. The wind data are
plotted in standard meteorological form, with a vector line
indicating the wind direction and barbs indicating the wind speed.
The barbs are plotted on the tail of the wind vector (the end where
the wind is coming from). Each full barb indicates five meters per
second of wind speed (about 10 knots or 12 miles per hour) and a
half-barb indicates 2.5 meters per second (about five knots or six
miles per hour). The wind plots are colorized for wind speed using
the color scale shown on the right side of the plot.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Data
Data from the TCEQ radar profilers are available from NOAA
Forecast Systems Laboratory at Multi-Agency
Profiler Graphical Data Displays
.
At present, real-time sodar wind data is not available.
