On the quality of RS41 radiosonde descent data

Radiosonde descent profiles have been available from tens of stations for several years now – mainly from Vaisala RS41 radiosondes. They have been compared with the ascent profiles, with ECMWF short-range forecasts and with co-located radio occultation retrievals. Over this time, our understanding of the data has grown, and the comparison has also shed some light on radiosonde ascent data. The fall rate is very variable and is an important factor, with high fall rates being associated with temperature biases, especially at higher altitudes. Ascent winds are affected by pendulum motion; on average, descent winds are less affected by pendulum motion and are smoother. It is plausible that the true wind variability in the vertical lies between that shown by ascent and descent profiles. This discrepancy indicates the need for reference wind measurements. With current processing, the best results are for radiosondes with parachutes and pressure sensors. Some of the wind, temperature and humidity data are now assimilated in the ECMWF forecast system.

Pendulum Motion Damped by Speed-Independent Friction

A pendulum without a supporting string or rod is obtained if a small block or marble is released at the rim of a spherical bowl or cylindrical half-pipe. This setup also applies to the familiar loop-the-loop demonstration. However, the bob will then experience sliding or rolling friction, which is speed independent in contrast to the linear or quadratic air drag which is more commonly used to model damping of oscillators. An analytic solution can be found for the speed of the bob as a function of its angular position around the vertical circular trajectory. A numerical solution for the time that the object takes to move from one turning point to the next shows that it is smaller than it would be in the absence of friction.

On the quality of RS41 radiosonde descent data

Radiosonde descent profiles have been available from tens of stations for several years now – mainly from Vaisala RS41 radiosondes. They have been compared with the ascent profiles, with ECMWF short-range forecasts and with co-located radio-occultation retrievals. Over this time our understanding of the data has grown, and the comparison also shed some light on radiosonde ascent data. It has become clear that the fall rate is very variable and that it is an important factor, with high fall rates being associated with temperature biases, especially at higher altitudes. Ascent winds are affected by pendulum motion, on average descent winds are less affected by pendulum motion and are smoother. It is plausible that the true wind variability in the vertical lies between that shown by ascent and descent profiles. The discrepancy indicates the need for reference wind measurements.

Design and Analysis of A Vortex Induced Vibration Based Oscillating Free Stream Energy Converter

The Kármán Vortex Shedding is one of the special types of vortex that is generated from asymmetric flow separation. For many years engineers tried to suppress the vortex shedding as it brings unnecessary motion to the static members inside the flow field. A converter model is designed and studied to harness the energy associated with this vortex shedding and convert it into usable form rather than suppressing it. It is a bluff body placed on the free stream incurring vortex-induced vibration and giving out a swinging pendulum motion. This motion is utilized to produce electricity. The model is analyzed on the free stream of water and conversion efficiency of 8.9% is achieved. A theoretical formula is derived regarding the force acting on the bluff body during the motion. Various parameters such as aspect ratio, flow velocity, lock-in delay, frequency of oscillation, etc. as well as their relations are studied by simulating the model in ANSYS FLUENT 18.1 for different configurations. From the simulated results it is obvious that as the lift force on the bluff body increases, more power generation is possible. Also, the experimental results paved the way for further study for practical large-scale implementation of the converter.

The Creative Act in the Dialogue between Art and Mathematics

This study was developed during 2018 and 2019, with 10th- and 11th-grade students from the Jose Maria Obando High School (Fredonia, Antioquia, Colombia) as the target population. Here, the “art as a method” was proposed, in which, after a diagnostic, three moments were developed to establish a dialogue between art and mathematics. The moments include Moment 1: introduction to art and mathematics as ways of doing art, Moment 2: collective experimentation, and Moment 3: re-signification of education as a model of experience. The methodology was derived from different mathematical-based theories, such as pendulum motion, centrifugal force, solar energy, and Chladni plates, allowing for the exploration of possibilities to new paths of knowledge from proposing the creative act. Likewise, the possibility of generating a broad vision of reality arose from the creative act, where understanding was reached from logical-emotional perspectives beyond the rational vision of science and its descriptions.

A new pendulum motion with a suspended point near infinity

In this paper, a pendulum model is represented by a mechanical system that consists of a simple pendulum suspended on a spring, which is permitted oscillations in a plane. The point of suspension moves in a circular path of the radius (a) which is sufficiently large. There are two degrees of freedom for describing the motion named; the angular displacement of the pendulum and the extension of the spring. The equations of motion in terms of the generalized coordinates $$\varphi$$ φ and $$\xi$$ ξ are obtained using Lagrange’s equation. The approximated solutions of these equations are achieved up to the third order of approximation in terms of a large parameter $$\varepsilon$$ ε will be defined instead of a small one in previous studies. The influences of parameters of the system on the motion are obtained using a computerized program. The computerized studies obtained show the accuracy of the used methods through graphical representations.