The Influence of Stratospheric Winds on a Suspended Instrument Package

Abstract

One of many high altitude experiments performed by the Physics Department of the RAAF Academy (Hopper et al. 1963) involves a small instrument package suspended from a balloon on a fine nylon yarn several miles long. Any wind shear that exists between the balloon and package will induce a relative lateral displacement by way of air drag on the yarn and package. This paper establishes the package displacements and yarn shapes produced by several wind shears of simple profiles, and suggests a method by which our knowledge of wind structure in the stratosphere may be extended. Numerical results are included for a typical situation involving a balloon at an altitude of 90000 ft and a yarn about 4 miles in length.