Solar Balloon Successfully Reaches Upper Atmosphere

The Balloon Carried Equipment to Study the Sun

The National Science Foundation has announced that a solar telescope reached 120,000 feet into atmosphere with the help of a jumbo jet-sized balloon. This test flight was the first step and a promising one for the Sunrise Project, which will launch a similar balloon with the same equipment over the Arctic in the summer of 2009.

The project is run by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and backed by a cast of international collaborators such as the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics. The Swedish Space Corporation and Spain's Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands are also partners in the project, as well as the other American partners, NASA, Lockheed Martin and the University of Chicago. NASA and the NSF are funding Sunrise.

The successful launch of the balloon and the safe return of the specially designed gondola raises the hopes for the researchers involved in Sunrise. Cliff Jacobs of the NSF said in the press release, "This successful balloon flight is an amazing engineering feat; it will pave the way for a more complete understanding of the solar magnetic field." The NCAR engineer, David Elmore, in charge of the test flight made a similar statement, "We can now move on to planning the first full-scale mission with confidence."

The Sunrise Project's aim is to study the sun's magnetic fields, and how the ever-fluctuating fields can affect the Earth. Solar activity, sometimes known as "storms," have been shown to affect power and telecommunications systems on Earth. The Project will also study how solar activity and radiation affect the Earth's climate.