BOA (Ballons sur l'Océan Austral)

Developed by Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique

Balloon launched on 2/12/2000, from Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentine

Purpose of the flight and payload description

This flight was part of BOA (Ballons sur l'Océan Austral) a small launch campaign carried out by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) along with the Centro de Investigaciones del mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA) spanish for Research Center of the Sea and the Atmosphere, from the University of Buenos Aires. Goal of the flight was to use constant level balloons across the southern Atlantic Ocean to obtain along their trajectories measurements of pressure, temperature, water vapour and wind velocity. Launches were made from Ushuaia in the southern end of Argentina.

The balloons used -which were Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloons (BLPB) remnants of the INDOEX campaign performed by LMD in the Indian Ocean in 1999- were made of non-extensible polyester with a diameter of 2.5 meters. At left we can see an image of one of them. A polystyrene container attached to the lower pole of the balloon housed all the electronic equipment, including power supply (lithium cells), an ARGOS satellite locator, the transmitter-oscillator, data encoder, and a pressure transducer to measure the pressure inside the envelope. Detaching from that container inside the enevelope, were added two arms holding a Solar Collector and a GPS antenna, while in top of it was placed the Argos antenna. The ambient temperature and humidity sensors, were located hanging at the end of two external arms fastened at the equator of the balloons envelope.

As the balloon was a closed envelope, it experienced no change in volume allowing it to fly at an almost constant density level of 850 hpa (equivalent to 1350 meters).

Details of the balloon flight

Balloon launched on: 2/12/2000 at 2:29 utc
Launch site: Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentine  
Balloon launched by: Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Super Pressure Balloon 2.5 mts. Diam. (Mylar bilaminated 10 microns)
Flight identification number: BOA 1
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 2/12/2000 at 6:45 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 4 h 10 m
Campaign: BOA  

External references

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