Abstract
Physoon is a high altitude ballooning payload designed and built by members of the Space Hardware Club for the purpose of comparing cosmic and terrestrial radiation from a variety of environmental conditions, including clear days, night times, solar events (eclipses, solar flares, coronal mass ejections), and thunderstorms. Over three design iterations, Physoon has flown eleven times with various combinations of Geiger counters sensors: a low energy Alpha-Beta-Gamma detector, an unshielded high-energy Beta-Gamma detector, and a shielded high-energy Beta-Gamma detector. One of these iterations successfully recovered data from high altitude during totality of the Great American Solar Eclipse. Another iteration was designed to fly into thunderstorms and contained a team-designed printed circuit board. This iteration has flown for a total of seven times so far; many have been in collaboration with the Severe Weather Institute - Radar and Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL). Data sets recovered from flights in the proximity of thunderstorms have shown increased radiation levels, both momentary and sustained.
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Physoon - Radiation Detection in Various High Altitude Environments
Physoon is a high altitude ballooning payload designed and built by members of the Space Hardware Club for the purpose of comparing cosmic and terrestrial radiation from a variety of environmental conditions, including clear days, night times, solar events (eclipses, solar flares, coronal mass ejections), and thunderstorms. Over three design iterations, Physoon has flown eleven times with various combinations of Geiger counters sensors: a low energy Alpha-Beta-Gamma detector, an unshielded high-energy Beta-Gamma detector, and a shielded high-energy Beta-Gamma detector. One of these iterations successfully recovered data from high altitude during totality of the Great American Solar Eclipse. Another iteration was designed to fly into thunderstorms and contained a team-designed printed circuit board. This iteration has flown for a total of seven times so far; many have been in collaboration with the Severe Weather Institute - Radar and Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL). Data sets recovered from flights in the proximity of thunderstorms have shown increased radiation levels, both momentary and sustained.