![Balloon launch Balloon launch](https://scripps.ucsd.edu/sites/scripps.ucsd.edu/files/basic-page/field-collections/field-body-images-and-text/2020/balloon_launch.jpg)
The balloons are made of clear polyethylene material that does not expand, ensuring that they have a constant volume and float at nearly constant altitude except for vertical oscillations of waves. Small adjustments to the height can be made by releasing small amounts of helium or ballast via remote control.
While this project was originally proposed and piloted in 2012, it took an immense amount of coordination and collaboration to get the balloons off the ground. Haase’s group leads the project, in collaboration with a research group at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Palaiseau, France, and with support from the National Science Foundation, the French National Center for Scientific Research, and the French Space Agency (CNES). Twelve separate research groups have instruments flying with the balloons, generating an immense amount of data.
Even harder than coordinating the research teams, the group had to get flight authorizations from the countries the balloons flew over - over 90 in total. After years of effort by CNES, and with support from Scripps Oceanography and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they were able to secure enough permissions to launch the project.
The six balloons are collecting a wide variety of measurements, on everything from water vapor to aerosol particles to air temperature and pressure. Haase’s group is particularly interested in measuring atmospheric temperature in the regions below the balloon.
![Jennifer Haase works on an instrument. Jennifer Haase works on an instrument.](https://scripps.ucsd.edu/sites/scripps.ucsd.edu/files/basic-page/field-body-images-and-text/2020/instrument_2.jpg)
To do this, the researchers use a method called “radio occultation.” Their equipment records signals from GPS satellites. As those satellites are “setting” below the horizon, the signals travel nearly parallel to the atmospheric layers, and the signals are delayed by an interval determined by the properties of those atmospheric layers, including temperature. From there, researchers can extract the information on the temperature within each layer beneath the balloon, and study the variations in temperature and vertical oscillations, capturing the wave signature. This technique will provide a much more finely-tuned view of atmospheric temperature fluctuations than earlier methods.
This set of balloons represents a pilot study in preparation for a larger launch of 20 balloons in 2021. The data will support ongoing efforts to develop better, more accurate climate models – an area of particular concern these days, as scientists work to better understand the long-range impacts of climate change.
“It’s very important to capture information about the energy being transported from the troposphere into the stratosphere due to these waves,” Haase said. “These instruments are recording data that will help us better understand how to include it in our climate models.
“We need to model these details carefully, because the temperatures in the stratosphere and tropopause layer can have effects on the temperature at ground level,” she continued. “While carbon dioxide levels have the biggest impact, understanding these effects on temperature will improve the models further.”
While these data have long-term implications for climate modeling, they may also be useful for more short-term forecasting: predicting turbulence so it can be more easily avoided by commercial aircraft, and predicting conditions that might lead to aircraft icing.
– Alison Caldwell, PhD, Bigelow Science Communications Fellow
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