Development of a novel balloon-borne optical sonde for the measurement of ozone and other stratospheric trace gases

Abstract

Ozone, balloon-borne measurements, atmospheric trace gases, concentration profiles, climate change. - In the frame of this work, a new small-size balloon-borne sonde was developed. A miniature grating spectrometer in the sonde measures simultaneously the solar spectral irradiance at a wide wavelength range from 200 to 850. As a first application, ozone profiles have been determined by measuring the changes in the spectral irradiance, caused by ozone absorption in the Huggins band. The wide spectral coverage of the spectrometer offers the possibility for measurements of other trace gases which absorb within the wavelength range, e.g. NO2 and BrO. The low weight of the new sonde (1.7 kg), the moderate price, and the autonomous portable telemetry system makes it a very versatile tool for satellite validation and for case studies, which requires a high number of launches. The newly developed sonde works well without temperature stabilisation, even so the spectrometer experiences rather large temperature changes (15 - 20 K) during the ascent through the atmosphere. Laboratory measurements were performed in ...