Balloon Flight Profile
A HARBOR flight consists of three basic stages: launch, flight and chase, and recovery. A representation of a full flight is shown to the right:
(1) Launch: The balloon and payloads are prepped and launched
from the ground.
(2) Ascent: The balloon ascends under the balloon. The science experiments collect and gather data; telemetry (notably the GPS location of the balloon) are transmitted back to the ground where they are received by the Chase Team.
(3) Burst: As the balloon ascends, the external pressure decreases. As a result, the balloon expands until it bursts at max altitude.
(4) Descent: The balloon rapidly descends until the atmosphere is thick enough for the parachute to inflate, which slows the descent.
(5) Recovery: The balloon and payloads come to rest at some location on the ground, hopefully near to the last received GPS transmission. The Chase Team locates the downed balloon, recovers the payload modules, secures the science data and instruments, and returns to base.
An important part of each balloon flight is pre-flight modeling of the expected balloon trajectory using computer software and atmospheric sounding data. more explanation to come
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Page Maintained by: John C. Armstrong eMail: Last Updated: 10 Aug 2009 |