Seminars

Seminars

Lecturer: Peter Dalin (IRF)
Date: 2019-12-12 10:00
Place: Aulan

Stratospheric balloon-borne observations of noctilucent clouds

Peter Dalin
Swedish Institute of Space Physics

Abstract.

The experimental campaign Stratospheric Observations of Noctilucent Clouds (SONC) was conducted on 16 August 2019 with the aim of photographing noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and studying their small- and large-scale spatial dynamics. A sounding scientific balloon was launched from Esrange and reached 30.2 km altitude. The scientific payload included three NLC cameras installed on a specially designed 3-axis gyro stabilization platform. Two cameras were equipped with wide-angles lenses in order to capture NLCs at large scales (100-1500 km) and one camera were equipped with a narrow-angle lens to observe small-scale structures and turbulence in NLCs at scales from 5 metres to 100 km. The payload was successfully operational during the whole flight (ca 2.7 hours), and the cameras took thousands of images. The image analysis is in progress. We discuss technical details of the scientific payload as well as first preliminary scientific results.


Created 2019-11-12 11:11:40 by Mats Holmström
Last changed 2019-11-29 22:01:42 by Mats Holmström