Stratospheric Balloon Constellations for Earth Science and Meteorology

Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) will discuss a revolutionary concept for a global constellation and network of hundreds of stratospheric superpressure balloons which can address major scientific questions relating to Earth science and meteorology. GAC is proposing this expanded, but complementary role for a new generation of stratospheric platforms based on an advanced balloon technology platform, called the StratoSat. StratoSat constellations can address issues of high interest to the Earth science community including global change, especially tropical circulation and radiation balance; global and polar ozone; hurricane forecasting and tracking; global circulation; and global ocean productivity. StratoSat constellations operating at a constant altitude of 35 km for 5 to 10-years in duration could augment and complement satellite measurements and possibly replace satellites for making some environmental measurements. The keys to this new concept are (a) affordable, long-duration balloon systems, (b) balloon trajectory control capability, and (c) a global communications infrastructure. GAC will summarize the development of technology for these very long-duration and guided stratospheric balloons that enable an affordable global constellation of formation-flying, stratospheric platforms. Constellation geometry management will be discussed especially the use of detailed knowledge and predictability of the stratospheric environment combined with sophisticated trajectory control systems and algorithms. [See http://www.gaerospace.com/publicPages/projectPages/StratCon/index.html