Station Keeping of Wind Driven Stratospheric Balloon via Propulsion Unit

Abstract

One of the most difficult problems in stratospheric balloon's design is to keep the balloon's geographic coordinates. Stratospheric wind speeds vary significantly both daily and throughout the year. Wind drag acting on the balloon should be manipulated to control the horizontal coordinates (longitude and latitude degree) of the stratospheric balloons. In this paper, propulsion unit is applied to a wind driven stratospheric balloon to keep balloon's coordinate over flight area. The simulation was applied to a zero-pressure high altitude balloon using actual wind profile for the first time to control the horizontal movement of the balloon. In addition, required thrust power and some parameters effects on it have been investigated. The results indicate that propulsion unit would be helpful to manipulate the horizontal motion of the balloon and to achieve keeping the balloon's geographic location.

Modeling of the Meteorological Balloon-Cube with LoRa-Based Ground Station

“…Even in emergencies, balloons act as an air-based communication relay for distributing the internet into rural/ urban areas [2]. Weather balloons could be utilized for senior students' final projects and educate them by implementing metrological balloons from primary concepts until a ready-to-flight fabricated model and preparing them for industry and faculty [3]. Balloons in stratospheric layers migrate by wind velocity.…”