A balloon-borne turbulence system

A new balloon-borne turbulence system is demonstrated. The system is based around a Gill Instruments sonic anemometer housed in an aerodynamic shell. Custom electronics designed and built at Leeds provide control and data logging, measurement of instrument motion via 3-axis accelerometers, angular rate sensors, and magnetic field vector. A compact aerosol optical particle counter (CLASP) provides a 16 channel aerosol spectrum (0.05 – 3.5 micrometres radius) at 10 Hz. Mean temperature, relative humidity and pressure are also recorded. The system allows fluxes of momentum, buoyancy (sonic temperature), and aerosol to be estimated via eddy correlation. We present an overview of the system, and measurements from initial field trials.