POLARIS COORDINATED BALLOON MEASUREMENTS

OVERVIEW

In conjunction with the POLARIS deployments, NASA UARP and AEAP/AESA will support balloon launches to provide information on trace species above ER-2 altitudes. In March/April, NASDA (Japan) and NASA will support a flight of two balloon payloads from Fairbanks containing the MkIV FTIR (Toon, JPL), the FIRS- 2 far infrared spectrometer (Traub, Harvard Smithsonian), the SLS submillimeter sounder (Stachnik, JPL), in situ ozone (Margitan) the CAESR mid-infrared remote thermal emission grating spectrometer (Murcray, Denver U.), and an in situ aerosol sampler (Hayashi, Nagoya U.) Payload 1 will consist of FIRS-2, SLS, in situ ozone, and in situ aerosol. Payload 2 will carry MkIV, in situ ozone, in situ aerosol, and CAESR. The Japanese support is associated with the validation of their ADEOS satellite.

Discussions are underway to arrange a flight for only the MkIV instrument at times close to at least one of the last two POLARIS deployments. These flights may occur from Lynn Lake, Canada, due to NSBF deployment constraints associated with other balloon activities already scheduled from this site. In addition, in the July time period, plans include a flight of the in situ balloon payload currently being deployed for STRAT from Brazil [LACE GC (Elkins, NOAA), CO₂ (Boering, Harvard), CH₄ and N₂O (ALIAS II, Webster, JPL), ARGUS (Loewenstein, NASA Ames), ozone (Margitan, JPL), H₂O (Oltmans, NOAA)]. Another flight of this same payload is also being considered for the September time period from Ft. Sumner, NM. Thus OMS-POLARIS will have both remote and in situ balloon components. Deployment support issues are currently being discussed with NSBF and the PIs under the coordination of Bill Brune (Penn. State U.) who will continue as Project Scientist for OMS-POLARIS just has he has done for OMS-STRAT. Final decisions regarding the timing, location, and participants in OMS-POLARIS will soon be made.

ADEOS INSTRUMENTS

The FIRS-2 is a remote-sensing Fourier-transform spectrometer that measures the mid-and far-infrared (14 to 140 micron) thermal emission spectrum of the stratosphere from balloon and aircraft platforms. Species measured include: O₃, N₂O, HNO₃, NO₂, H₂O, N₂O₅, OH, HO₂, H₂O₂, HOCl, ClONO₂, HCl, and HF.

The JPL MkIV is a high resolution FTIR spectrometer designed to make remote observations of atmospheric composition by the solar absorption technique. Since being built at JPL in 1985, the MkIV has performed 7 balloon flights (all successful) from New Mexico and California. The MkIV measurements include, O₃, N₂O, HNO₃, NO₂, CH₄, H₂O, CO, CFC-11, N₂O₅, H₂O₂, HOCl, ClONO₂, HCl, HF, CFC-12, NO, HNO₄, OCS, HCN, CCl₄, CF₄, COF₂, CHF₂Cl, CH₃Cl, C₂H₂, C₂H₆, and CFC-22.

The Submillimeterwave Limb Sounder (SLS) is a heterodyne detection spectrometer which measures atmospheric thermal emission at submillimeter wavelengths. As a high resolution (2 MHz min channel width) emission remote sensing instrument, the SLS can provide continuous vertical profile (15km to 45 km altitude) measurements during day or night. Species measured by SLS are, O₃, N₂O, HNO₃, HO₂, ClO, and HCl.

The JPL Ozone Photometer has made 20 flights in the past 8 years aboard gondolas flying in NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Program. The balloon photometer is a twin of the ozone measuring instrument that flies on board the NASA ER-2 in the Polar Ozone Campaigns.

The Nagoya University sampler samples the aerosols in the air, which is pumped by a small air pump onto the surface of filter whose size is a few mm in diameter. The sampler is often called an impacter sampler since the aerosols stick on the filter surface by the collision on it with the air flow by the pump. After return to the laboratory, the morphology of the aerosols is observed with an electron microscope, and the chemical composition is analyzed with a laser microprobe mass spectrometer.

The University of Denver mid-infrared remote thermal-emission grating spectrometer measures atmospheric radiation with essentially zero instrumental background. It is a small, He-cooled grating radiometer, for the region 7.5 to 12.6 micron. Profile measurements are made on ascent. The species measured are, O₃, HNO₃, CH₄, aerosol, CFC-11, N₂O₅, and CFC-12.

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