Long Duration Balloon

This morning, from the front door of Building 140,
we watched a 300 foot tall Long Duration Balloon
rise into the sky and start to drift lazily
upward. It's part of the Cosmic Ray Energetics
and Mass (CREAM) experiment and was "designed
to measure cosmic ray elemental spectra using
a series of ultra long duration balloon (ULDB)
flights". It will eventually rise to almost
25 miles into the sky. I haven't seen one
of these take off before and although I wasn't out
at the launch site, it was still fun to see such
a large object rising above our terrain.

ORACLE-O3

ORACLE O-3 "deals with experimental and modelling
research on the ozone layer, UV radiation and the
effects of personal UV exposure". In easier terms,
it's the biggest science project at McMurdo this
winter and measures changes in the Ozone Layer.


About 2-3 times per week, Paula and her Balloon Crew
brave the elements on "Sausage Point" and launch a very
fragile balloon the size of a ten story building up
to 30 kilometers into the sky. It carries a 5 pound
payload of monitoring equipment with it and can travel
as far as 160 kilometers away. Everyone is invited to
watch but the Crew are hearty folks as yesterday they
braved -25 Fahrenheit temperatures and 30 mile per hour
winds to get their launch in. These launches will continue
through WINFLY when the temperatures and conditions really
get brutal.