High Altitude Balloon Experiment Research Articles

FPGA based telecommand system for balloon-borne scientific payloads

Abstract Telecommand (TC) plays a crucial role in the success of high-altitude balloon experiments. Bose, Ray-Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (BCH) codes are commonly employed to ensure reliable command operation. The Balloon Facility (BF) of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) uses a TC system based on BCH (31,16) coding technique, to control balloon and payload operations. This paper presents prototyping and implementation of TC encoder and decoder using Spartan 6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The code is written in Very high-speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL). Simulation and synthesis are done using Xilinx ISE 14.7 design suite. Simulation results show the design is robust. The TC encoder is implemented in a commercial FPGA development board and the TC decoder is implemented in a specially designed FPGA board, successfully. This paper presents the salient features of the TC system in use and the implementation of the system using FPGA.

Engineering part of Payload box in High Altitude Balloon Experiment.

High-altitude balloons have long been used for experimental access to both the lower and upper atmosphere, including the troposphere and stratosphere. On this poster, I am describing the design and the engineering part of the payload box with Pocket lab device in High Altitude Balloon Experiment.

Engaging Indigenous Youth in Science with the High-Altitude Balloon Experiment

Our custom high-altitude balloon experiment kit with the complete set of instructions has been successfully used to engage high school and post-secondary students across Canada. This article describes how the high-altitude balloon experiment was adapted to engage Indigenous students from two on-reserve schools in science with the presence of an Elder. Based on the results from our research, while the balloon experiment is an effective tool to engage Indigenous students, the project doesn’t change the participants’ interest in science. We are making several suggestions to bring the experiment to its full potential. It would be more beneficial to make the high-altitude balloon experiment as a multi-day workshop or a major component of a science summer camp. Further, it would be more effective to integrate the balloon experiment into the high school science curriculum rather than run it as an independent event in the on-reserve schools. Finally, we are suggesting how student participation of the survey can be improved for on-reserve schools.

Incorporation of High-Altitude Balloon Experiment in High School Science Classrooms

We have been launching high-altitude balloons to engage students in science since 2013. Our custom balloon kit allows high school teachers and students to collect environmental data and capture videos. Through our experience interacting with high school students, we have found that the high-altitude balloon experiment is an effective tool for inquiry-based learning to introduce chemistry topics including gas properties, elements and molecules, heat capacity, thermochemistry, electromagnetic radiation, bond breaking and formation, and atmospheric chemical reactions. Examples are given to demonstrate how to incorporate the experiment in high school science classrooms.

A high-altitude balloon experiment to probe stratospheric electric fields from low latitudes

Abstract. The Earth's electrical environment hosts a giant electrical circuit, often referred to as the global electric circuit (GEC), linking the various sources of electrical generators located in the lower atmosphere, the ionosphere and the magnetosphere. The middle atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) has been traditionally believed to be passively transmitting electric fields generated elsewhere. Some observations have reported anomalously large electric fields at these altitudes, and the scientific community has had to revisit the earlier hypothesis time and again. At stratospheric altitudes and especially at low latitudes, horizontal electric fields are believed to be of ionospheric origin. Though measurements of these fields from a balloon platform are challenging because of their small magnitudes (around a few mV m−1), a suitably designed long-duration balloon experiment capable of detecting such small fields can provide useful information on the time evolution of ionospheric electric fields, which is otherwise possible only using radar or satellite in situ measurements. We present herein details of one such experiment, BEENS (Balloon Experiment on the Electrodynamics of Near Space), carried out from a low-latitude site in India. The instrument package for this experiment is comprised of four deployable booms for measurements of horizontal electric fields and one inclined boom for vertical electric field measurements, all equipped with conducting spheres at the tip. The experiment was conducted from Hyderabad (17.5° N, 78.6° E) during the post-midnight hours on 14 December 2013. In spite of a few shortcomings we report herein, a noticeable feature of the observations has been the detection of horizontal electric fields of ∼ 5 mV m−1 at the stratospheric altitudes of ∼ 35 km.

Tiled Array of Pixelated CZT Imaging Detectors for ProtoEXIST2 and MIRAX-HXI

We have assembled a tiled array (220 cm2) of fine pixel (0.6 mm) imaging CZT detectors for a balloon borne wide-field hard X-ray telescope, ProtoEXIST2. ProtoEXIST2 is a prototype experiment for a next generation hard X-ray imager MIRAX-HXI on board Lattes, a spacecraft from the Agencia Espacial Brasilieira. MIRAX will survey the 5 to 200 keV sky of Galactic bulge, adjoining southern Galactic plane and the extragalactic sky with 6' angular resolution. This survey will open a vast discovery space in timing studies of accretion neutron stars and black holes. The ProtoEXIST2 CZT detector plane consists of 64 of 5 mm thick 2 cm x 2 cm CZT crystals tiled with a minimal gap. MIRAX will consist of 4 such detector planes, each of which will be imaged with its own coded-aperture mask. We present the packaging architecture and assembly procedure of the ProtoEXIST2 detector. On 2012, Oct 10, we conducted a successful high altitude balloon experiment of the ProtoEXIST1 and 2 telescopes, which demonstrates their technology readiness for space application. During the flight both telescopes performed as well as on the ground. We report the results of ground calibration and the initial results for the detector performance in the balloon flight.

The Flying Laboratory for the Observation of ADS-B Signals

Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) is a system in which aircraft continually transmit their identity and GPS-derived navigational information. ADS-B networks for air traffic monitoring have already been implemented in areas around the world, but ground stations cannot be installed in midocean and are difficult to maintain in the Arctic, leaving a coverage gap for oceanic and high latitude airspace. A potential solution for worldwide tracking of aircraft is through the monitoring of aircraft-transmitted ADS-B signals using satellite-borne receivers. To investigate this possibility, a high altitude balloon experiment was carried out in June 2009 to determine if ADS-B signals can be detected from near space. The Flying Laboratory for the Observation of ADS-B Transmissions (FLOAT) was the first stratospheric platform to collect ADS-B data. The FLOAT mission successfully demonstrated the reception of ADS-B signals from near space, paving the way to the development of a space-based ADS-B system.

Searching for TeV cosmic electrons with the CREST experiment

The Cosmic Ray Electron Synchrotron Telescope (CREST) high-altitude balloon experiment is a pathfinding effort to detect for the first time multi-TeV cosmic-ray electrons. Such would be the markers of nearby cosmic accelerators, as energetic electrons from distant Galactic sources are expected to be depleted by radiative losses during interstellar transport. Electrons will be detected indirectly by the characteristic signature of their geomagnetic synchrotron losses, in the form of a burst of coaligned x-ray photons intersecting the plane of the instrument. Since the primary electron itself need not traverse the payload, an effective detection area is achieved that is several times the nominal 6.4 m 2 instrument. The payload is composed of an array of 1024 BaF2 crystals surrounded by a set of veto scintillator detectors. A long-duration balloon flight in Antarctica is planned for the 2011-12 season.

Development of Quartz Friction Gauge on Board Balloon and Sounding Rocket

The on-board small vacuum gauge developed in this study is the quartz friction gauge, which is based on the principle that the resonance impedance of a quartz oscillator varies with the pressure of ambient gas. The gauge has a wide measuring range (105-10-2 Pa), which corresponds to the atmospheric pressure from the ground to an altitude of about 100 km. The sensor part and data processing part weigh 136 g and 210 g, respectively. In addition, the gauge can operate at a power consumption level of less than 1W. The gauge is suited for high altitude balloon experiments where the weight of on-board instruments must be kept to a minimum. The tuning-fork-shaped quartz oscillator in the gauge is widely used for wrist watches and has high resistance to vibration and shock, and thus the gauge is applicable to sounding rocket experiments that require on-board instruments with high resistance to the environment.

Control System for a Balloon-Borne Tracking and Pointing Experiment

High-altitude balloons offer relatively low-cost, low-vibration platforms to host, in a “near space” environment, experimental versions of payloads eventually destined for space-based applications. The High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE) is such an experiment, which will be hosted by a single-cell, scientific balloon at an altitude of 26km. The HABE mission is to acquire supporting data, validate enabling technologies, and resolve critical acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) and Fire Control (FC) issues in support of future space- and air-based precision pointing systems.

A rare event in the stratosphere

PERTINENT to the question of the existence of haze and water vapour in the stratosphere1,2 was the detection of a nacreous cloud at 25 km over New Mexico on June 20, 1974. This occurred just before the volcanic dust incursion from Fuego in November, 1974 (ref. 3), during a high altitude balloon experiment in which a large polar nephelometer was used to measure the optical angular-scattering characteristics of atmospheric aerosols4.

Effect of X-Rays from Scorpio-XR-1 upon the Lower Ionosphere

It has been recently reported that X-rays coming from the constellation Scorpio at a distance of nearly 250 light years produce detectable effect on the propagation of skywave signal in the long-wave range. There is apparent experimental confirmation to this effect from some workers and contradictions from rigorous theoretical calculations by others.In this paper, the author has analysed one year's data of the received field strength at Delhi of long-wave transmissions of Radio Tashkent (164 kHz). An attempt has been made to correlate the transit times of Sco-XR-1 with changes in the field intensity in the received long-wave field. Various statistical computations have also been made to obtain clear effect, if any, of the X-rays from Sco-XR-1 upon such long-wave propagation. In addition, the effect of some of the X-ray flares from this source observed through high altitude balloon experiments and OSO satellites has been studied with a view to finding out any correlation between these flares and the corresponding long-wave field.It is concluded from the various analyses presented in this paper that the X- rays from Sco-XR-1 do not appear to have any effect on the propagation of a longwave transmission through the earth's lower ionosphere.

High altitude balloon experiments and measurement of the heavy primary radiation flux at the geomagnetic equator

The paper describes high-altitude balloon experiments with nuclear plates, made near the geomagnetic equator. A magnetic orientating unit was used. The behaviour of balloons is discussed, and it is shown that systems of balloons may have a series of stable floating levels at determinate altitudes. Analysis of the tracks observed in the plates has given the following values for the primary cosmic ray flux at the geomagnetic equator: For 6⩽Z⩽10, N0=1·45±0·30 particles/m.2 sec. sterad. For Z>10, N0=0·33±0·08 particles/m.2 sec. sterad. Any observable E.W. asymmetry at the heights reached by the plates is within the statistical uncertainty of the results. The charge spectrum is in general similar to what has been previously observed.