Balloon operation for stratospheric air sampling at Antarctica Original Research Article

On January 3rd, 1998, a cryogenic air sampling experiment was carried out at Syowa Station (69S, 40E), which is the first successful trial in the world for collection of large amount of stratospheric air over the Antarctic. The samples are analyzed for CO2, CH4, CFCs, and C and O isotope ratios in CO2 in the laboratories. As the meteorological conditions for launching and payload recovery are both critical, feasibility on wind conditions over Syowa Station was studied in detail. The balloon launching operations had to be performed without a specialist. Facilities for balloon launching, tracking, and other support systems were newly designed for ready-to- and easy-to-use. Realtime remote support from Japan for the balloon launching and flight control operations was applied using a computer network linked by INMARSAT.