Abstract. An aerostat-lofted, sonic anemometer was used to determine instantaneous 3 dimensional wind velocities at altitudes relevant to fire plume dispersion modeling. An integrated GPS, inertial measurement unit, and attitude heading and reference system corrected the wind data for the rotational and translational motion of the anemometer and rotated wind vectors to a global North, West, Up coordinate system. Data were taken at rates of 10 and 20 Hz to adequately correct for motion of the aerostat. The method was applied during a prescribed forest burn. These data were averaged over 15 min intervals and used as inputs for subsequent dispersion modeling. The anemometer's orientation data are demonstrated to be robust for converting the wind vector from the internal anemometer reference system to the global reference system with an average bias between 5 and 7°. Lofted wind data are compared with sonic anemometer data acquired at 10 m on a mast located near the tether point of the aerostat and with local meteorological data.