Date:	Tue, 18 Jan 1994 03:47:10 -1000
From:	gnyce@nas.edu (Gregory Nyce)
Message-Id: <9400187589.AA758911630@nas.edu>
Organization: Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Subject: a curious note


a little excerpt from a magazine, with apologies to Science News...

Need Pollution Data?  Go Fly a Kite

If interest in kite flying soars among atmospheric scientists, it will stem
largely from the effort of Ben Balsley, a researcher at the Cooperative
Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colorado.  In the
last several years, Balsley has pursued the idea that kites can lift
meteorological instruments to high altitudes for long spans of time, thereby
filling a unique niche in the arsenal of tools used by atmospheric scientists
(SN: 4.4.92, p. 216).  He tested that idea last summer in Nova Scotia, where he
used kites to measure ozone concentrations in the troposphere.

Balsley and his crew worked with a high-tech parafoil kite, constructed from
mylar fabric strengthened with threads of kevlar.  They flew the kite at a
height of 2600 meters for periods of up to 12 hours.  While the kite remained
in the air, a wind-powered tram carried ozone-measuring instruments up and down
the line, taking readings at different levels in the atmosphere.  Their results
tracked the spread of pollution from industrialized regions in North America.
Balsley says that although balloon experiments could make similar measurements,
the kite technique is much cheaper because scientists often cannot recover
ozone meters carried by balloons.

Balsley and his colleagues plan to test their kites next year as part of a
research project to be staged in the Azores.  If the receive funding, they hope
to build a much larger parafoil that could, in theory, carry scientific
payloads up to 19,000 meters, far above the reach of most research aircraft.

Science News, Jan. 1, 1994, Vol. 145, No. 1, pg. 14


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