Meteorological Rocket Sounding for Atmospheric Research and Geophysical Monitoring

A. A. Kuminov, V. A. Yushkov, Yu. N. Gvozdev, O. V. Shtyrkov,
A. D. Lykov and N. V. Balugin

The brief description of technical specification of meteorological rockets used at Roshydro- met stations, including the exposition of the MERA new meteorological rocket with a lift up to 100 km, MRS 100 rocketsonde, onboard measuring and service equipment, is presented. The technique for measuring atmospheric parameters and the results of investigating long-term variability of temperature and wind in the stratosphere and mesosphere according to long-term (1969–1995) data of meteorological rocket sounding at Volgograd station are considered. It is shown that in the altitude range from 25 to 75 km, trends in temperature and wind speed over Volgograd station for 1969–1995 are nonlinear and, at most altitudes, nonmonotonic. An increase with altitude in the range of trend variations in the analyzed parameters during the surveyed period is discovered: up to 15–19 K in the lower and middle mesosphere for temperature, up to 15 m/s at the stratopause for the zonal component of wind speed, up to 10 m/s in the lower mesosphere for its meridional component.