The PMC Turbo Balloon Mission to Measure Gravity Waves and Turbulence in Polar Mesospheric Clouds: Camera, Telemetry, and Software Performance

Carl Bjorn Kjellstrand, Glenn Jones, Christopher Geach, Bifford P. Williams, David C. Fritts, Amber Miller, Shaul Hanany, Michele Limon, Jason Reimuller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Polar Mesospheric Cloud Turbulence (PMC Turbo) instrument consists of a balloon-borne platform which hosts seven cameras and a Rayleigh lidar. During a 6-day flight in July 2018, the cameras captured images of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) with a sensitivity to spatial scales from ~20 m to 100 km at a ~2-s cadence and a full field of view (FOV) of hundreds of kilometers. We developed software optimized for imaging of PMCs, controlling multiple independent cameras, compressing and storing images, and for choosing telemetry communication channels. We give an overview of the PMC Turbo design focusing on the flight software and telemetry functions. We describe the performance of the system during its first flight in July 2018.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere2020EA001238
JournalEarth and Space Science
Volume7
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
©2020 The Authors.

Keywords

  • aeronomy
  • balloon-borne experiments
  • cameras
  • flight control software
  • gravity waves
  • polar mesospheric clouds

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