Driftsonde System Capabilities National Center for Atmospheric Research Earth Observing Lab Boulder, CO Driftsonde Engineering Group Terry Hock, Nick Potts, Charlie Martin Driftsonde Scientist Group Holger Vömel, Steve Cohn, Kate Young Strateole 2 Workshop 18-19 March 2015 © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Driftsonde Large zero-pressure or super-pressure balloon aloft for days to months Iridium Satellite Driftsonde Gondola 54 dropsondes Float altitude ~18 to 30 km Dropssonde : Pressure Temperature Relative humidity Wind Ground station (web based remote operation) Sondes dropped on command or a pre-programmed schedule

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Past campaigns AMMA (2006) T-PARC (2008) CONCORDIASI (2010) © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2014 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Driftsonde Gondola MIST Sonde Capacity: 54 units Operational Life: ~ 6+ weeks Mass: ~24kg (with sondes) Size: 71 cm x 71 cm x 45 cm Power: Lithium SO2 Batteries Solar Panel Heaters for batteries and electronics Automated Radiosonde Sounding System Iridium Satellite Communications System Health Engineering Monitoring Position & Velocity - GPS Receiver Pressure Sensor Battery voltages Solar Panel voltage Component Temperatures © 2014 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Miniature In-situ Sounding Technology (MIST Sonde) GPS Antenna Back Side Components Cone Parachute GPS Receiver Lithium Battery Microcontrollers 400 MHz Transmitter Pressure Sensor 400 MHz Antenna Humidity Sensors Temperature Sensor © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Miniature In-situ Sounding Technology (MIST Sonde) Size: 30.5 cm height x 4.40 cm diameter Mass: 182 grams Fall time: ~ 17 minutes from 60 mb Fall Velocity: ~40 m/s @ 60 mb, ~10 m/s @ surface Vaisala RS-92 radiosonde sensor module Pressure, Temperature, Humidity Update rate 0.5 sec Winds based upon OEM GPS receiver 0.1 m/s resolution 0.25 sec (4 Hz) update rate for wind data Cone parachute Transmission at 403-406 MHz © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Sonde Fall Velocity © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

System Communications and Data Flow Driftsonde Gondola Internet RF Link 400 MHz Telephone Lines Iridium Ground System Arizona U.S. Web Interface and Control Toulouse Seychelles Boulder Boulder Telephone Modems (min qty 4) Boulder Servers Back End control & Data Storage NCAR Ground Control Boulder, CO Iridium Satellite 1620 MHz RF link Dropsonde PTU & Winds © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Global Operations Scientific Flight Operations Center & Flight Control Toulouse, France Engineering Monitoring Boulder, USA Balloon Launch Location Victoria, Seychelles Past Launch and Flight Operations Locations © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Dropsondes on other platforms C-130 Aircraft P-3 Aircraft Driftsonde - Zero Pressure balloon G-5 Aircraft Driftsonde –Super Pressure Balloon & UAS Global Hawk © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research System Status MIST Sonde: GPS receiver and transmitter IC are obsolete=> new circuit and PCB design, update firmware Gondola: Iridium transceiver module and mini computer are obsolete New hardware and software engineering required in main electronics Driftsonde WEB Site: Software control, monitoring and data display is all WEB based Software engineering required to update code for security and for current operating system versions Option to leave off PTH sensor module for wind only sonde to reduce costs (~25% sonde cost reduced) © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Field Support and Travel 1 trip to CNES in Toulouse France for Integration testing and planning meetings. (2 NCAR staff) 1 trip to the Seychelles for a validation flight, (2 NCAR staff) (There would be 1 gondola and 1 spare unit for this campaign) 2 trips to the Seychelles to support a 2 month field campaign for each year. Due to the duration in the field, this would be staffed by 2 EOL staff at any given time and there would be a change out of staff after 1 month. ( 2 staff on site at any time) We would not provide support in France during flight operations but could do so from Boulder. If training is needed for the WEB control, then I would recommend staff travel to NCAR for training. © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research NCAR Operations During flight operations, it will be the responsibility of the PI’s to determine and perform the drops via the Drifstonde WEB site (in cooperation with NCAR engineers) NCAR engineers in Boulder will monitor and control health of each gondola over the flight period. NCAR will perform data quality control for all soundings (Kate Young and Holger Vömel) © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Driftsonde Summary Proven operations in extreme environments Tropics to Antarctica high altitude (~20km to ~30km) Long term flights ( 6+ weeks) Precision in-situ sensors in sonde High vertical resolution atmospheric profiles 54 sonde capacity in gondola Support of multiple simultaneous gondolas in flight Web based system for command, control and data display Global control and monitoring Fully automated operations pre scheduled sonde releases Release sondes up to every 2 hours (limited by Iridium data bandwidth) Significant engineering changes from AMMA to T-PARC and Concordiasi © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research MIST Sonde Humidity Data First 6 drops from MSD1 Seychelles launched February 8, 2010 © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research MIST Sonde Wind Speed Data First 6 drops from MSD1 Seychelles launched February 8, 2010 © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research MIST Sonde Temperature Data First 6 drops from MSD1 Seychelles launched February 8, 2010 © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Gondola Illustration Harness GPS & Iridium Antenna Solar Panels for Heater Iridium Modem System Electronics Battery & Elect. Heater MIST Sondes Lithium Batteries 400 MHz Sonde Antenna NOT TO SCALE © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Gondola System Block Diagram © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Driftsonde WEB Interface Control and Data Display Capabilities Schedule Sonde releases Set Drop Limits Table of sonde release location and drop times Sounding data files Sondes Available for release Log of ALL commands sent to gondola Google Earth Maps- Track Iridium communications history WEB database of all soundings Password protected site, with limited to full use privileges Engineering health of gondola System (battery) Voltages GPS Position & Velocity Flight Pressure Temperature monitoring © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

© 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Driftsonde Cost-effective dropsonde observations to fill critical gaps in coverage over oceanic and remote regions over days to months © 2010 Copyright University Corporation for Atmospheric Research