The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Notes on meteorological balloon mission planning

Notes on meteorological balloon mission planning
Notes on meteorological balloon mission planning
In the 21st century the high altitude gas balloon remains an indispensable tool in atmospheric science, meteorology and other applications requiring stratospheric observations. A prerequisite of the effectiveness of many types of balloon operations is an accurate trajectory forecasting capability, complete with appropriate error estimates. This is particularly important in targeted flights, sample return missions or flights of expensive instruments, whose recovery is essential. The ASTRA (Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft) initiative led to the development of such a forecast model, which is at the centre of the present paper. A key source of error in such models is our incomplete understanding of the drag opposing the rise of balloons in the free atmosphere – here we propose a new, stochastic model based on empirical data derived from thousands of radiosonde flights. We also examine other sources of prediction error affecting the accuracy of the flight path forecast, such as uncertainties in the wind profile and balloon envelope manufacturing variability. A Monte Carlo framework is used to provide probabilistic touchdown point estimates taking these error sources into account. The above elements have been integrated into a web service, which can be used as a flight planning tool – here we review the key features of its architecture.
1-15
Sobester, Andras
096857b0-cad6-45ae-9ae6-e66b8cc5d81b
Czerski, Helen
8704500e-b00f-41c0-bfa3-b5f08e7e39d6
Zapponi, Niccolo
be086dda-b71b-4525-9350-cdf5cc4bf816
Castro, I.P.
66e6330d-d93a-439a-a69b-e061e660de61
Sobester, Andras
096857b0-cad6-45ae-9ae6-e66b8cc5d81b
Czerski, Helen
8704500e-b00f-41c0-bfa3-b5f08e7e39d6
Zapponi, Niccolo
be086dda-b71b-4525-9350-cdf5cc4bf816
Castro, I.P.
66e6330d-d93a-439a-a69b-e061e660de61

Sobester, Andras, Czerski, Helen, Zapponi, Niccolo and Castro, I.P. (2013) Notes on meteorological balloon mission planning. AIAA Balloon Systems (BAL) Conference, Daytona Beach, United States. 26 - 28 Mar 2013. pp. 1-15 . (doi:10.2514/6.2013-1295).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

In the 21st century the high altitude gas balloon remains an indispensable tool in atmospheric science, meteorology and other applications requiring stratospheric observations. A prerequisite of the effectiveness of many types of balloon operations is an accurate trajectory forecasting capability, complete with appropriate error estimates. This is particularly important in targeted flights, sample return missions or flights of expensive instruments, whose recovery is essential. The ASTRA (Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft) initiative led to the development of such a forecast model, which is at the centre of the present paper. A key source of error in such models is our incomplete understanding of the drag opposing the rise of balloons in the free atmosphere – here we propose a new, stochastic model based on empirical data derived from thousands of radiosonde flights. We also examine other sources of prediction error affecting the accuracy of the flight path forecast, such as uncertainties in the wind profile and balloon envelope manufacturing variability. A Monte Carlo framework is used to provide probabilistic touchdown point estimates taking these error sources into account. The above elements have been integrated into a web service, which can be used as a flight planning tool – here we review the key features of its architecture.

Text
AIAA 2013-1295.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Download (6MB)

More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 26 March 2013
Venue - Dates: AIAA Balloon Systems (BAL) Conference, Daytona Beach, United States, 2013-03-26 - 2013-03-28
Organisations: Acoustics Group, Aeronautics, Astronautics & Comp. Eng

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 350844
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/350844
PURE UUID: 5e4b5ac0-95ed-4659-a3f4-eedcd6ae3458
ORCID for Andras Sobester: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8997-4375

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 09 Apr 2013 09:43
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:13

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Andras Sobester ORCID iD
Author: Helen Czerski
Author: Niccolo Zapponi
Author: I.P. Castro

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×