Feasibility studies of “polar patrol balloon”

Engineering and meteorological feasibilities of a circum-south-polar ballooning project, called “Polar Patrol Balloon (PPB)”, for space and geophysical researches are studied. We plan to use zero-pressure balloons mounting an auto-ballasting system, utilizing the non-sunset condition in mid-summer. PPB will be launced to a level higher than 30 km from an observational base in the Antarctica and come back there by a circumpolar wind. It is predicted that the circumpolar period may be a few weeks in the case of mid-summer 30 km-level flight and its meridional deviation after a circumpolar flight may be within a few hundreds kilometers. We have tested auto-ballasting and ARGOS-tracking, and are developing some on-board data accumulation systems and power supply. If we can collaborate with foreign bases, results of PPB should be much more successful especially concerning simultaneous observations at various latitudes.