Accomplishments

Abstract

Balloon missions support many science disciplines including astrophysics, Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, and technology development. Since their inception, scientific balloons have delivered cutting edge science. NASA balloon science has yielded insights into the nature of the Earth’s atmosphere, the Sun, the space environment close to Earth and the universe at large. For example, electron microburst precipitation was discovered with balloons and is now known to be an important loss mechanism for the Van Allen radiation belts. These rapid bursts of precipitation provide an ideal target for studying the physics of non-linear wave-particle interactions in space plasmas. Balloons can readily distinguish the spatial and temporal variations of these bursts, which would be difficult for a satellite in low Earth orbit.