NOAA and World View Enterprises are teaming up to take a uniquely detailed look at the composition of Earth’s stratosphere.
Under the agreement, World View’s “Stratollite” balloons will carry a miniaturized NOAA instrument to measure atmospheric particles on a series of flights in 2021 that will last weeks and cover thousands of miles at altitudes above 55,000 feet.
The flights will allow NOAA”s Chemical Sciences Laboratory to explore the potential of using new autonomous platforms to acquire key scientific data in the stratosphere for extended periods over large geographic regions, said David Fahey, director of the Chemical Sciences Laboratory. World View is donating space for the instrument on its balloon platform to NOAA at no cost.
“There really is no other platform right now that can allow us to make detailed, uninterrupted measurements in the stratosphere for this length of time,” Fahey said. “We’re not only going to be evaluating high-altitude balloons as a potential research platform, we also anticipate capturing important observations about the stratosphere on both sides of the equator during these flights.”
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Image via NOAA Research
