High Altitude Ballooning as an Atmospheric Sounding System in the Pre-Flight Procedures of ILR-33 Amber

The paper presents research on the near real-time atmospheric sounding system. The main objective of the research was the development and testing of the weather sounding system based on a weather balloon. The system contains a redundant system of radiosondes, a lifting platform containing weather balloon and a holding system as well as ground station. Several tests of the system were performed in August and September 2019. Altitude, reliability, resistance to weather conditions and data convergence were tested. During tests, new procedures for such missions were developed. The final test was performed for the ILR-33 Amber Rocket as a part of pre-launch procedures. The test was successful and allowed to use acquired atmospheric data for further processing. Several post-tests conclusions were drawn. The altitude of sounding by a weather balloon depends mostly on weather conditions, the amount of gas pumped and the weight of a payload. The launching place and experience of the crew play an important role in the final success of the mission, as well.