The Development of a Stochastic Model of the Atmosphere Between 30 and 90 Km to Be Used in Determining the Effect of Atmospheric Variability on Space Shuttle Entry Parameters

A stochasitc model of the atmosphere between 30 and 90 km was developed for use in Monte Carlo space shuttle entry studies. The model is actually a family of models, one for each latitude-season category as defined in the 1966 U.S. Standard Atmosphere Supplements. Each latitude-season model generates a pseudo-random temperature profile whose mean is the appropriate temperature profile from the Standard Atmosphere Supplements. The standard deviation of temperature at each altitude for a given latitude-season model was estimated from sounding-rocket data. Departures from the mean temperature at each altitude were produced by assuming a linear regression of temperature on the solar heating rate of ozone. A profile of random ozone concentrations was first generated using an auxiliary stochastic ozone model, also developed as part of this study, and then solar heating rates were computed for the random ozone concentrations.