Poster Presentation

Flight Testing a New Venting System During Solar Eclipses

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Abstract

EMU Atmospheric Physics EXploration (EMU APEX) recently launched high altitude weather balloons in Los Lunas, NM and Lima, OH during two recent solar eclipses as part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. During the missions, one on October 14, 2023 and the other on April 8, 2024, we flew a scientific payload to an altitude of approximately 90,000 feet with instrumentation to measure temperature, wind speed, pressure, and position while testing a venting system to float the balloon at our target altitude. The main goals of these launches were to flight test new hardware, observe atmospheric dynamics during eclipses, and to attempt to detect atmospheric gravity waves. Ultimately, EMU APEX aims to be able to conduct repeatable ballooning missions using the vent system to control the altitude, and thus speed, of the payload such that it is in a location suitable to measuring atmospheric dynamics in difficult to observe regions. Here, we present a subset of the results from these flights, including observations of an atmospheric gravity wave as well as intense updrafts associated with the local topography. In addition to the flight results, we also present the performance results of our venting system and cosmic ray detector during the solar eclipses. We will show improvements made to the venting system, such as a modification to the design of the vent to reduce the strain on the vent neck and the addition of sensors to provide more insight into the flow rate as helium flows out of the vent. 

Keywords: high altitude weather ballooning, solar eclipses, venting system, atmospheric gravity waves

How to Cite:

Friend, R., Popofski, H., Pawlowski, D. & Kovacs, T., (2024) “Flight Testing a New Venting System During Solar Eclipses”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2024(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.17954