Vaisala PTB100 barometer
Temperature Sensitivity
The accuracy of the PTB100 is specified to be 0.3mb, with an error over the temperature
range -40 to +60C of 3mb. This error appears to be almost exclusively dependent on the
temperature of the sensor. During two experiments, OASIS98 and FLOSSII, ATD deployed
a PTB100 near another pressure sensor. The difference between these sensors appears to
be highly correlated with temperature, as shown in this plot.
Note that these differences are larger than the specification -- almost +/-4mb over a
temperature range of just -10 to +40C. The differences between the two data sets could
be the particular sensor used (though I think we only have one in active use), a
dependence on the absolute pressure (OASIS was about 100mb, FLOSS about 700mb), or
something else.
ISFF has not corrected these data, though starting in FLOSSII we intend to apply a
laboratory-derived correction to the average values from this sensor.