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Access Type

Open Access

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Degree Type

Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (M.S.E.C.E.)

Year Degree Awarded

2009

Month Degree Awarded

September

Keywords

Microbaroms, Absolute barometers, Upper atmosphere winds, Nanobar precision, Discrete-time bandpass filter

Abstract

In this thesis, the performance of absolute quartz-crystal barometers is presented, and their ability to measure, with sub-microbar precision, atmospheric pressure fluctuations with periods as short as a few seconds is demonstrated. The first observations of ocean-generated atmospheric infrasound with periods of about 5 s and sub-microbar amplitudes, called microbaroms, using single absolute barometers are presented. These barometers can measure microbaroms with amplitudes down to 50 nanobars and the 1-h estimates of microbarom amplitudes calculated from data collected independently with three collocated barometers differed by only a few nanobars. The observed microbaroms have amplitudes between 0.2 microbars and 1 microbar with periods between 3 s and 8 s. The relative accuracy between the barometers is of the order of a few pascals. It is concluded that these absolute quartz-crystal barometers can be used effectively for infrasound monitoring.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/983896

First Advisor

Andreas Muschinski

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