Short Time Period Atmospheric Density Variations and Determination of Density Errors From Selected Rocketsonde Sensors
l. INTRODUCTION
A knowledge of the vertical and horizontal variation of atmospheric density is required to solve problems such as reentry effects on missiles and their components. For guided reentering vehicles, it has been shown that maximum reentry heating commonly occurs in the 5040 70-km altitude region of the atmosphere. The deceleration (in g's) of a reentry vehicle is given by the dynamic pressure, p=0.5pv2, divided by the ballistic coefficient, B= W/C,A, where p is the atmospheric density, W the weight of the vehicle, V the relative velocity, CD the drag coefficient, and A the reference area of the vehicle.