Space Weather Ballooning

Phillips, Tony; Johnson, Sam; Koske-Phillips, A.; White, Michael; Yarborough, A.; Lamb, Aaron; Herbst, A.; Molina, F.; Gilpin, Justin; Grah, Olivia; Perez, Ginger; Reid, C.; Harvey, Joey; Schultz, Jamie

doi:10.1002/2016sw001410

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…There are many previous reports of student involvement or student-led science projects that utilise weather balloons (e.g. Larson et al (2009), Bancroft et al (2014), Phillips et al (2016)). Other examples of similar projects can be found in the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Experiments at the edge of space: balloon flights to the stratosphere

Denton,

Blum,

Kivi

et al. 2024

Phys. Educ.

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Over 1500 balloons are launched every day, from every continent on Earth, to provide forecasting of tropospheric weather. Similar balloons, which can fly to the edge of space (>30 km), can be used for other science projects. Professional scientists, military users, commercial organisations, and interested amateurs, all fly payloads that provide a relatively low-cost means to reach the upper atmosphere. Weather ballooning is perfectly suited to student education and has been carried out for decades by groups of school, college, and university students. Here we report on one such a project. During March/April 2023 a series of balloons were launched from Sodankylä, Finland, in order to study the particle and radiation environment, along with ozone, in the stratosphere. Inexpensive off-the-shelf Geiger-counters were part of a payload flown to investigate how the radiation environment changed over time. Balloon payloads can be tracked with simple and inexpensive radio receivers. Similar projects to the one outlined here should be possible for any school, college, or university that has a reasonably well-equipped workshop, a group of interested and capable students, and a desire to investigate and learn something new about the planet we live on.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Experiments at the edge of space: balloon flights to the stratosphere

Denton,

Blum,

Kivi

et al. 2024

Phys. Educ.

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“…The paper by Phillips et al [] presents dose rates measured from stratospheric weather balloons near Bishop, California. The balloon launches were conducted by the student‐led “Earth to Sky Calculus” organization.…”

Section: Summary Of Rad‐x Special Issue Articlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of the Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) flight mission

Mertens

2016

Space Weather

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The NASA Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD‐X) stratospheric balloon flight mission addresses the need to reduce the uncertainty in predicting human exposure to cosmic radiation in the aircraft environment. Measurements were taken that characterize the dosimetric properties of cosmic ray primaries, the ultimate source of aviation radiation exposure, and the cosmic ray secondary radiations that are produced and transported to aviation altitudes. In addition, radiation detectors were flown to assess their potential application to long‐term, continuous monitoring of the aircraft radiation environment. RaD‐X was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico (34.5°N, 104.2°W), on 25 September 2015. Over 18 h of science data were obtained from a total of four different type dosimeters at altitudes above 20 km. The RaD‐X flight mission was supported by laboratory radiation exposure testing of the balloon flight dosimeters and also by coordinated radiation measurements taken on ER‐2 and commercial aircraft. This paper provides the science background and motivation for the RaD‐X flight mission, a brief description of the balloon flight profile and the supporting aircraft flights, and a summary of the articles included in the RaD‐X special collection and their contributions to the science goals of the RaD‐X mission.

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“…The ionization rate induced by GCR, EEP, SPE, and Rn‐222 depends on the altitude and latitude differently for each source (e.g., Mironova et al, 2015; Roffman, 1972). The energetic‐electron‐driven ionization increases with height to the maximum in mesosphere/thermosphere, while for GCR, the maximum is at about 18 km and then decreases with heights (e.g., Bazilevskaya et al, 2008; Phillips et al, 2016). The Rn‐222‐induced ionization maximizes in the boundary layer irrespective of the latitude but having a geographical pattern related to the radon emission.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural Sources of Ionization and Their Impact on Atmospheric Electricity

Golubenko

Rozanov

Mironova

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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We present a study of atmospheric electricity using the chemistry-climate model SOCOL considering ionization by solar energetic particles during an extreme solar proton event (SPE), galactic cosmic rays (GCR), and terrestrial radon (Rn-222). We calculate the global distribution of the atmospheric conductivity and fair-weather downward current density (J z) using atmospheric ionization rates from all sources. We found that J z is enhanced (by more than 3.5 pA/m 2) in radon source and polar regions. Contribution of Rn-222 is essential at middle and low latitudes/altitudes where GCR-induced air conductivity is reduced. The model results are in good agreement with the available observations. We also studied the effects of an extreme SPE, corresponding to the 774 AD event, on the atmospheric electricity and found that it would lead to a large increase of J z on a global scale. The magnitude of the effects depends on location and can exceed background value more than 30 times over the high latitudes (a conservative upper bound). Such an assessment has been performed for the first time.

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Space Weather Ballooning

Cited by 14 publications

References 16 publications

Experiments at the edge of space: balloon flights to the stratosphere

Experiments at the edge of space: balloon flights to the stratosphere

Overview of the Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) flight mission

Natural Sources of Ionization and Their Impact on Atmospheric Electricity

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