| Altitude | Speed | From | Arrow |
|---|
Importing into OpenRocket
- Open the simulation (Edit simulation > Launch conditions). Under Wind, choose Multi-level and click the button that opens the Wind Profile Editor.
- Set Altitude reference to Mean Sea Level (MSL), to match this file.
- Click Import levels. In Wind Data Import Settings: check CSV file has a header row, separator comma, and columns
altitude,speed,directionwith units ft, mph, degrees. Leave the standard deviation column as it is; the file has none. - Pick the downloaded .csv. The table fills in; add turbulence there if you want gusts.
Direction is where the wind comes from (0 = from the north, 90 = from the east), as in OpenRocket and weather reports.
About the data. Forecast: the best weather model for the spot from Open-Meteo (in the US the 3 km HRRR for the first two days, then NOAA’s GFS out to 15 days), with winds 10, 80, 120 and 180 m above the ground and on 19 pressure levels up to about 78,000 ft. A forecast gets better as the launch gets closer, so check again the day before. Weather balloons: launched twice a day, at 00Z and 12Z (5 or 6 pm and 5 or 6 am Mountain time), from about 70 National Weather Service stations; the winds blend the three stations around your site, weighted by how close each is, and the two launches either side of your time. They are measurements, best for working out what a past flight flew through; they are coarse near the ground. Soundings via Iowa State University IEM (the same data as the University of Wyoming site). Ground elevation and forecasts: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.