NCAR Driftsonde Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) Flight from McMurdo

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract The NCAR Driftsonde gondola is a community designed, autonomous platform for the deployment of MIST (Miniature In-Situ Sounding Technology) dropsondes over oceans and remote polar and continental regions where rawinsondes or dropsondes from other platforms are not practical. During their vertical descent from an aloft platform, various atmospheric parameters are collected by the MIST sondes and transmitted to one or other satellite receivers, for both research and operational forecasting needs. An opportunity to deploy a series of up to 50 sondes in a full field NASA ULDB platform launched over the Antarctic continent arises from NASA investigators (from the Columbia Scientific Ballooning Facility, Palestine, TX) conducting pre-production tests of the development of their unique long duration balloon platform (ULDB). The ULDB is of an advanced super pressure design, and uses a pumpkin shaped, closed volume (constant altitude) shape to achieve flights of up to 100 days duration, significantly longer than any comparable balloon flights, and positionable up to altitudes of ~ 30.5km. A full test of both technologies is to take place during the persistence of the Antarctic polar vortex late November, early December (2009), from Williams Field, McMurdo Station, Antarctica. PTR - Potentially Transformative nature of this Research The entire Antarctic (~10%of the earth's land surface) atmosphere is spectacularly under-sampled with respect to key lower atmospheric meteorological parameters. This impacts our ability to study and understand a range of phenomena ranging from the polar ozone hole to dynamics of the global circulation on climatological timescales. Discounting both their limitations and considerable expense, even advanced aircraft platforms are incapable of such sustained measurements. Satellites also have known limitations, including uncertainties as to their relative calibrations and validation that campaigns such as this could greatly assist. There are risk elements associated with the piggyback nature of the two technologies to be combined, yet the development of such a novel capability potentially opens up study of a number of important topics in Antarctic atmospheric studies.