DETERMINATION OF AIR TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY FROM SYNCHRONOUS OBSERVATIONS OF SOUND VELOCITY, REFRACTIVITY, AND PRESSURE

S. M. Kolomiets

Formulas are obtained that express air temperature and humidity through the sound velocity, refractivity, and pressure. Preliminary estimates show that the errors of measurement of temperature may be less than hundredths of a degree, and the errors for partial pressure, less than hundredths of a hectopascal. The time of a single measurement can be small enough (hundredths of a second). This means that it is possible to study fluctuations of the indicated parameters with a frequency of up to 102 Hz. A new method is proposed for determining the refractive index or the sound velocity. The method is based on measuring the width of the interference bands caused by two electromagnetic or acoustic waves with shifted frequencies. In turn, their width can be determined from a phase shift of the signals obtained at two points of an interference region.