Pegaso: an ultra-light long duration stratospheric

• Main Authors: Romeo, Giovanni, Peterzen, Steven, Masi, Silvia, Di Stefano, Giuseppe, Di Felice, Fabio, Ibba, Roberto, Cardillo, A., Musso, Ivano, Benedetti, Paolo, Caprara, Francesca, Iarocci, Alessandro, Mari, Massimo, Palangio, Paolo, Spinelli, Giuseppe, Spoto, Domenico, Urbini, Giuseppe, Dragoy, Peter
• Other Authors: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Sezione Roma1, Roma, Italia, #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Stratospheric balloons; Geomagnetic crustal anomalies; Antarctic; Austral; Nobile; Svalbard; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2122/11036

Launched from the Mario Zuccelli Station (Baia Terra Nova) in Antarctica during the 2005/06 austral summer, the PEGASO-D payload lifted into the stratospheric anticyclone over the southern polar region. This effort marks the first Long Duration Scientific payload to be launched from this location and is the fourth such payload launched in the polar regions. Performing in the framework of the NOBILE/AMUNDSEN collaborative LDB development between ASI-ARR. The Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), with the sponsorship of the Italian Antarctic Program (PNRA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI),designed and built the Ultra-Light system together with three Universities in Italy. The Pegaso program has been created to investigate the Earth magnetic field and provide a precursor series of small payload launches for the bigger LDB program such as OLIMPO, BOOMERanG and BArSPOrt through this collaboration between ASI and ARR. The Italian scientific community, aware of the big advantages that LDB balloons can offer to their experiments, proposed to extend the LDB program to Southern polar regions, besides performing launches from the newly initiated Nobile/Amundsen Stratospheric Balloon Center in Svalbard, Norway.Three PEGASO (Polar Explorer for Geomagnetics And other Scientific Observations) payloads have been launched from the Svalbard (No) in collaboration with Andoya Rocket Range, ASI and ISTAR (Operations and logistics) during the past two northern summers. These stratospheric (altitude m.35000) small 10kmc balloons have floated in the stratosphere between 14 to 39 days measuring the magnetic field of polar regions, by means of a 3-axys-fluxgate magnetometer, during a three year campaign. The study of the magnetic field and its variations is done through permanent observatories. They provide us with high quality data but their spatial distribution is not quite regular, specially in Antarctica due to logistic difficulties. The coverage is improved through marine and aeromagnetic surveys, and also ...