In this study, a wind profiler with a radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) and operational radiosonde measurements were used to investigate the technical practicability and reliability of using parametric speakers to measure the vertical profile of virtual temperature. Characteristics of parametric speakers include high directivity and very low side lobes, which are preferable for RASS, especially those operating in urban areas. The experiments were conducted on fine days with light winds to mitigate the effects of the horizontal and vertical components of wind on acoustic waves used for RASS. The results of this study indicated that, although parametric speaker RASS is susceptible to horizontal winds due to the narrower acoustic beam, bias and standard deviation of parametric speaker RASS versus radiosonde virtual temperature difference (0.1 °C, 0.4 °C) were close to those from acoustic speakers (0.0 °C, 0.4 °C). In addition, when compared with acoustic speaker RASS, the values for the parametric speaker RASS were even smaller (0.1 °C, 0.2 °C). Based on these results, it is concluded that the parametric speaker RASS has accuracy and precision comparable with acoustic speaker RASS despite its high directivity of sound.
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