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A lightweight, constant-flow air sampling pump has been adapted for attaching to a balloon tether line for the vertical sampling of atmospheric perfluorocarbon tracers. Constant flow was maintained up to an altitude of 6,250 m. The pump design, construction, and sampling technique are described. Typical vertical concentration results obtained during a perfluorocarbon tracer release experiment are presented. INTRODUCTIONA number of computer models have been developed to predict the atmospheric transport, with horizontal and vertical diffusion, of pollutants in time or distance from the source. To provide empirical data to assess the limitations and reliability of these models, a tracer technology was developed which utilizes fluorinated compounds as tracers to facilitate observations of atmospheric transport and dispersion of the pollutants. This technology, first proposed by Lovelock, 1 involves the controlled and measured release of inert, nontoxic, nondepositing perfluorocycloalkane (perfluorocarbon) compounds into the atmosphere as meteorological tracers. During the releases, air samples are collected by samplers arranged in a network along the anticipated ground-level tracer plume trajectory. Each sample is subsequently analyzed for the tracers by gas chromatography electron-capture detection.

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