The highest thermometer

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tmazanec1

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Something I find interesting is that, although hot air rises, the upper atmosphere is colder than the lower atmosphere (to reasonable heights). Can this be measured with model rockets?
What would you put together to measure the temperature at the ground and, say, one mile altitude? What would the whole system cost?
 
To name a few, the RRC3, SL100, marsa54 altimeters all have temperature measurement sensors which is recorded from launch till landing and can all be downloaded for further review.
 
On half a dozen flights up to 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the ground my SL100 has detected almost no change in temp (well under 1 degree F). This doesn't seem quite right, but it could be that the altimeter is inside a fairly large heat sink that just doesn't change temperature for the small amount of time it is above the ground.

It would be interesting to hear from people who have gone 10,000 feet or more.
 
I know this thread is old but I've been curious about recording atmosphere temperatures with a LPR/MPR rocket. I just ordered an Elitech recording thermometer, model RC-5. These are designed for recording changes in temperature of temp-sensative items in shipment or storage. Small enough to fit in a BT-55 tube and only weigh 30 grams. The lowest limit to the sampling rate is 10 seconds so if the acceleration doesn't kill it I'm hoping to get some good data from a typical flight.
 
I know this thread is old but I've been curious about recording atmosphere temperatures with a LPR/MPR rocket. I just ordered an Elitech recording thermometer, model RC-5. These are designed for recording changes in temperature of temp-sensative items in shipment or storage. Small enough to fit in a BT-55 tube and only weigh 30 grams. The lowest limit to the sampling rate is 10 seconds so if the acceleration doesn't kill it I'm hoping to get some good data from a typical flight.

You might want to consider ejecting the thermometer to get it into the open air during descent. See my previous post on this thread for my experience with the temps recorded by my SL100.

I just checked my last flight to 3,800 feet AGL.
Time, Altitude, Temperature (F)
0 seconds, 0 feet, 87.08F
14.5 seconds, 3800 feet, 87.04F
131.95 seconds, 0 feet, 86.23F
 
I know the altimeters record temp, but I think being inside the av-bay and surrounded by what is a heat sink, I expect they are not accurate when recording temps. The other question is how reactive is the temp sensor? If it takes a minute or two to react, like the sensor in my car, then the flight is over before it's really reacted to any temp change.
 
What fun! My Elitech thermometer shows "shipped" via USPS so I should have it in a week. First calm day after it arrives I'll send it up and post the results. I have a couple of rockets that could carry it so there'll be several flights - Zues-cat has a good point so one will probably be with the payload section on a separate chute for more potential samples. Maybe Swiss cheese the payload body tube for plenty of exposure to the air.
 
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