Poster Presentation

Field Test of Altitude-Controlled Stratospheric Ozonesonding with Vented Balloons during the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

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Abstract

The concentration of the stratospheric ozone layer is of great interests to the atmospheric science community, since it is critical in blocking the harmful UV radiations from the sun. Typically, regular weather balloons with Electrochemical Cell (ECC) ozonesondes are used to determine the vertical profile of ozone column concentration within a flight time of ~2 hours, with a limited fraction of the data relevant to the ozone layer. Therefore, it would be ideal if ozonesonde flights can be maintained within the ozone layer (~60,000 to 80,000 ft) to maximize the efficiency in data acquisition, especially considering the rising costs of ozonesonding and high altitude ballooning.

We adapted the vented balloon with altitude-control flight capability from the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Program (NEBP) for atmospheric ozonesonding and deployed a commercial ECC ozonesonde payload with this approach from Central Texas during the 2024 total solar eclipse, in the hope of (1) field testing the performance and application potential of vented balloons in horizontal ozone layer profiling and (2) monitoring the stratospheric ozone layer during the solar eclipse for extended period of time. The adapted vent valve demonstrated promising performance in the field: its flight altitude in the stratosphere was controlled between 41,000 and 71,000 ft. Unfortunately, unexpected and sustained radio communication difficulties were experienced from 12-9pm UTC on the eclipse day, leaving the second research objective largely unobtainable.

Keywords: Vent balloon, Ozonesonde, 2024 solar eclipse

How to Cite:

QIU, C., Neumann, K., Halloran, A., Hibbard, R., Babich, N., Ibrahim, T. & Teall, G., (2024) “Field Test of Altitude-Controlled Stratospheric Ozonesonding with Vented Balloons during the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2024(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.17935