A description is given of a photoelectric cell and filter type of ultraviolet-intensity meter [IF which is combined with an audio-frequency generator and radio transmitter and transported aloft by means of unmanned balloons.The radio-frequency wave is modulated by the response of the photoelectric cell, the response being proportional to the intensity of the incident ultraviolet rays. The height of the balloons is indicated by a radio barograph. The radio signals giving the altitude of the apparatus and the ultraviolet intensities are received and recorded graphically at a ground station.Six balloon ascensions were made during the latter part of June and the early part of July 1937. Altitudes up to about 80,000 ft (24 km) were attained, but owing to the weakness of the signal and the consequent interference by noise strictly quantitative data were obtained only to about 64,000 ft (19 km).Below 14 km the transmissions of ultraviolet throu gh the filters remain fairly constant, indicating but little change in the spectral quality of the shortest wave lengths. At a height of about 14 km the transmissions of the filters begin to decrease, indicating a selective increase in intensity of ultraviolet of the shortest wave lengths, as a result of a decrease in the amount of ozone above the apparatus.Between 14 and 19 km the filters show an unmistakable decrease in transmission, indicating that the apparatus had passed through an appreciable portion of the ozone layer, variously estimated at 15 to 30 percent of the superposed ozone, the lower value being in good agreement with previous explorations (in 1934), taking into consideration the latitude and the season of the year.At the highest altitudes attained the intensity of the ultraviolet radiation in the band of wave lengths shorter than 3132 A was about 3 times the value observed at sea level. This spectral band includes, of course, also wave lengths not observed at sea level.
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