Stratospheric Balloon-Based Dropsonde Technology: Development And Preliminary Assessment Over The Tibetan Plateau

To complement the atmospheric profile measurements under complex geographical environments and extreme weather conditions, a stratospheric balloon-based dropsonde technology, which is carried by a stratospheric balloon platform from the Earth's surface to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) to release the dropsonde for measurements, is independently developed and preliminarily assessed over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in this study. The dropsonde system is mainly composed of the dropsonde chamber, dropsonde with a parachute, data receiving and communication antennas, dropsonde-releasing device, and GPS (Global Positioning System) modules. The dropsonde measurements can be sent in real time through satellite communication links and by radio signals to a data receiver at the ground control center for storage and processing. A total of eight dropsondes aboard the stratospheric balloon were successfully released during the TP campaign in 2020. A preliminary assessment was conducted based on a case comparison between the dropsonde and radiosonde measurements, which indicated that the dropsonde technology we developed can generally provide reasonable atmospheric profiles. However, further efforts are still required to improve the detection performance of the dropsonde sensors after long-term locating in the UTLS and to assess the accuracy and precision of the detection technology more carefully.