By Erica McNamee of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a kid, you were always taught to hold tight to balloons\u2014tie them around your wrist, even, to keep them close.\u00a0This week,\u00a0a group of\u00a0a dozen\u00a0undergraduate students\u00a0participating\u00a0in\u00a0NASA\u2019s 2026 Student Airborne Research Program\u00a0(SARP), unlearned\u00a0old\u00a0balloon-wrangling\u00a0habits\u2014and let\u00a0go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their purpose:\u00a0 to\u00a0collect data about the atmosphere with the help of a weather balloon.\u00a0For this fieldwork day,\u00a0in a\u00a0windy area\u00a0on the Texas Gulf Coast, the\u00a0group\u00a0released\u00a0an\u00a0ozonesonde, a small instrument attached to\u00a0a\u00a0weather balloon that measures ozone concentrations as it rises through the atmosphere.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never done any atmospheric fieldwork outside like this, so this has been an awesome new opportunity for me,\u201d said Marin Stevens, SARP intern and chemistry student from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the support of program mentors and faculty, and aboard the University of Houston\u2019s Mobile Air Quality Laboratory\u00a0(MAQL), the SARP interns\u00a0participated\u00a0in every step of the process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s set the scene:\u00a0About 45 minutes away from this year\u2019s SARP home base at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Houston, the MAQL drove down\u00a0the Texas City Dike, a long strip of land jutting into the Texas Gulf Coast\u2014an open space perfect for releasing the weather balloon.\u00a0Among the 45 total students in the program,\u00a0this group was assigned to meet\u00a0the\u00a0mobile\u00a0lab at the\u00a0balloon\u00a0release location\u00a0at\u00a0\u00a08\u00a0a.m.\u00a0Central Time,\u00a0just after a rainstorm rolled through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside the lab,\u00a0the\u00a0students\u00a0prepared\u00a0ozonesondes\u00a0for takeoff,\u00a0completing\u00a0the final steps\u00a0that include\u00a0measuring and pipetting cathode and anode\u00a0solutions\u00a0into the\u00a0instrument cells\u00a0attached to the sensor and testing\u00a0each\u00a0instrument\u2019s\u00a0response and baseline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside the mobile laboratory,\u00a0gusts\u00a0of wind\u00a0made\u00a0it difficult\u00a0to keep\u00a0the\u00a0balloon\u00a0still while it was being filled with helium.\u00a0Four students\u00a0donned\u00a0leather\u00a0gloves\u00a0to\u00a0minimize oils from their fingers touching the\u00a0balloon, which can make it pop faster after deployment. They\u00a0wrangled the balloon while faculty advisor Travis Griggs,\u00a0instructional assistant professor of atmospheric science\u00a0from the University of Houston, filled\u00a0it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five\u00a0students\u00a0worked together to keep the balloon from flying away as they\u00a0strung\u00a0it\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0ozonesonde, protected in a small foam container.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After confirming the launch location, time, and expected flight path with the Federal Aviation Administration\u00a0(just a phone call away), it was time to set the weather instrument free.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a fight to stay on the ground, with the balloon whipping around in the wind,\u201d\u00a0said Zayna Haider, SARP intern and atmospheric and climate science student from the University of Washington.\u00a0\u201cIt\u00a0just flew away as soon as we let it go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the work had only just begun.\u00a0The students huddled back inside the MAQL,\u00a0monitoring\u00a0data as long as the balloon kept sending it\u2014until it popped or landed, whichever came first. Throughout the day, they repeated this\u00a0process\u00a0with two other balloons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This day gave\u00a0many\u00a0SARP participants,\u00a0just starting their science careers,\u00a0their first glimpse at hands-on fieldwork that reached\u00a0the edges of the atmosphere.\u00a0Next, they would\u00a0use this data and what they learned from the experience for their end-of-internship research presentation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is beyond what I ever thought it could be,\u201d Stevens said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m super excited for the next seven weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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