BLIS: Boundary Layer Instrumentation System (BLIS)

1971

The development of the Boundary Layer Instrumentation System (BLIS) was part of the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) and was designed specifically to meet the observational requirements of GARP’s Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE). The system was designed to measure temperature, humidity, pressure altitude and the total wind vector (speed and direction of both vertical and horizontal components) in the lower 1500 meters of the atmosphere. BLIS consisted of five Boundary Layer Instrument Packages (BLIPs), attached to a tether line suspended from a helium-filled balloon 1500 meters above sea level. The tether line was payed out from a shipboard winch. Data is telemetered from the BLIPs to an on-board Portable Data Acquisition System (PODAS), or to a smaller ground station.

Excerpted from BLIS: The Boundary Layer Instrumentation System

Investigators

Related Websites

Publications

  • BLIS: The Boundary Layer Instrumentation System. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1973. 11p. UW SSEC Publication No.73.04.B1.

  • Burns, Stanley G. and Suomi, V. E. Boundary Layer Instrumentation System task three sea trials report (STAG contract 2-35116). Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1973. Various paging. UW SSEC Publication No.73.04.B2.

  • Specification for a prototype boundary layer instrumentation system. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1971. Various paging. UW SSEC Publication No.71.00.S1.

  • Suomi, Verner E and Martin, D. W. On the requirements of a Boundary Layer Instrumentation System for the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment: Final report on the Boundary Layer Instrumentation Study, Task Order Number 3 to STAG contract E-127-69(N). Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1971. i, 24 leaves. UW SSEC Publication No.71.06.S2.

  • Suomi, Verner E. and Buress, K. J. Technical report on a prototype Boundary Layer Instrumentation System: Final report (part 3) on the Boundary Layer Instrumentation Study. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1971. i, 59 leaves. UW SSEC Publication No.71.08.S1.

  • Suomi, V. E. and Martin, David W. On the Requirements of a Boundary Layer Instrumentation System for the GARP Tropical Experiment [Final Report on the Boundary Layer Instrumentation Study, Task Order Number 3 to STAG Contract E-127-69 (N)] SSEC No.71.06.S2. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1971. Reprint #898.

  • Wylie, Donald P. and Ropelewski, Chester F. The GATE Boundary Layer Instrumentation System (BLIS). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society v.61, no.9, 1980, pp1002-1011. Reprint #162.

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