A proposed international tropical reference atmosphere up to 80 km

Abstract

Motivated by the need in many aerospace applications for a meaningful reference atmosphere characteristic of the whole of the tropics in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the globe, a proposal is made here for such an atmosphere upto an altitude of 80 km. The proposal is based on balloonsonde, rocketsonde and grenade and falling sphere data, respectively, in the range of about 0-20, 20-50 and 50-80 km height. The final proposal consists of six linear segments in the temperature distribution, with temperature values in degrees Centigrade of 27, -9, -74, -5, -5, -74 and -74 at altitudes of 0, 9, 16, 46, 52, 75 and 80 km respectively. The sea level pressure is taken as 1010 mb, and abridged tables of quantities of interest in meteorological and aerospace applications are provided.