As part of our research activities, we fly a wide variety of platforms to carry our sensors up into the atmosphere.
At the smallest end, we fly AnaSondes and our cloud water content sensors on 3-foot diameter latex party balloons up to 35,000 feet. Our larger radiosondes, and devices needing exposure to the high altitude environment, fly on small 200-gram meteorological balloons. Larger payloads, and those needing to reach the highest altitudes (100,000 feet or more) including the near-space environment, fly on 1500-gram or larger meteorological balloons. These largest payloads are usually recovered with the aid of GPS-based tracking systems.
The photo to the right shows an early example of our dropsonde launcher; this system, currently under development as part of an Air Force SBIR Phase II contract, launches dropsondes upon remote command and receives the data at a remote ground station. "Dropsonde" is the term for a free-falling radiosonde. More photos of this system are found on our Photos page.
One of our proudest achievements is the SmartTetherTM system. We fly this system on a 15-foot long blimp.
Many of Anasphere's instruments have been designed for flight on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs. Watch for the latest news regarding our efforts to bring a remote-sensing UAV to Montana!
Anasphere is always willing to help other organizations fly experiments or sensors on our platforms. Such flights benefit from our extensive flight experience as well as our ability to provide supporting sensors, telemetry, and recovery of the payload.