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High-Altitude Balloons Flights on Total Solar Eclipse

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Abstract

Students from the University of North Florida (UNF) participated in NASA’s Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Program (NEBP). The UNF team visited Malvern, Arkansas during April 6 -9, 2024. A high-altitude balloon, Innovation was successfully launched, and after approximately 5 min, another balloon, Osprey-2, was launched before beginning the total solar eclipse from Malvern, Arkansas. The main aims of the flights were to evaluate the performance of the newly designed Innovation Vent and Cutdown System, connectivity with a satellite iridium modem, RFD900, testing new flight data recorder payload, ozone sensor data logger payload, Geiger Muller Counter payload, Raspberry Pi camera, 360-degree Insta camera, 170-degree action camera, ground station, and spot tracker.

The variation in the altitude of the Osprey-2 and Innovation balloons with flight time was measured. The Osprey-2 balloon reached the highest altitude at about 27896 m, while the Innovation balloon reached the highest altitude at about 27860 m. The maximum speed over ground for Osprey-2 was 206.57 km/h while for Innovation was 216.4 km/h. Both flights covered the solar eclipse. Our 3-D printed vent system worked well without helium gas leakage on both balloons. We found that the Iridium satellite worked faster to open the vent on the Osprey-2 balloon, while our newly designed vent on the Innovation balloon opened automatically by the geo fence and without using any satellite modem. However, the ascending rate of both balloons was faster compared to venting helium, and before balloons started floating and closing of the vent command executed, the balloons underwent a burst. The variations in the temperatures inside and outside the payload with time were measured. The ozone concentration was measured using three types of nanocrystalline composite oxide semiconductor thin films. Three sensor boxes, each with eight sensors, were used to monitor ozone concentration. The concentration of ozone in the stratosphere decreased throughout the solar eclipse. This may be because the amount of available UV sunlight decreased; hence, ozone formation also decreased. The variation in sunlight during the flight supported the results of the ozone sensors. In addition, the Geiger Muller counter payload measures radiation counts per minute (CPM) during the entire flight time. It was found that radiation counts decreased during the solar eclipse.

 

Keywords: High altitude balloon, Total Solar Eclipse, Ozone, nanocrystalline materials, gas sensors, radiation detector

How to Cite:

Patel, N., Patel, A., Leonard, D., Ott, C., Pare, C., Ramos, L., Taylor, C., Rowe, J. & Ratcliff, L., (2024) “High-Altitude Balloons Flights on Total Solar Eclipse”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2024(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.18174