Student Team Gets to Present at Academic High-Altitude Conference

A student team from Embry?Riddle Aeronautical University just capped off a 2-year project with NASA's Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP), yielding data about the behaviors of stratospheric phenomena during a solar eclipse.

They weren't the only ones lending a hand, with additional student researchers coming in from Montana State University and NASA to help with the project.

“High-altitude balloons have been used for a long time to study the atmosphere and are a great way to engage students,” said Dr. Yabin Liao, assistant professor of aerospace engineering. Liao serves as the advisor for the student team working on it, called ASCEND. “The NASA-sponsored NEBP project provided a fantastic opportunity for students to explore science and engineering as part of a meaningful research project.”

Team president Grullon and treasurer Chloe Reed have conducted multiple high-altitude balloon launches, beginning with efforts to measure atmospheric conditions during the annular eclipse in October 2023.

“I have been part of ASCEND since my sophomore year, and we have been involved in NEBP research for the past two years, from project proposal to total eclipse launch,” said Somaralyz Grullon, a graduating Mechanical Engineering senior. Grullon has served as team president of ASCEND, helping conduct a series of balloon launches since an annular eclipse in October 2023.

“There were two groups of teams led by the NEBP project," explained Chloe Reed. She's the team treasurer, and an Aerospace Engineering major at Embry-Riddle. "One is for data collection using weather ballooning-grade trackers called radiosondes. The second group is the engineering teams, which we participated in. We constructed our payloads carried by a single, heavier balloon and sent up to collect data which we could recover after launch.”

The team's balloons were given names like Fred, Shaggy, Velma, Cotton Candy Glob, Scooby-Doo and Daphne as they were sent to measure location, pressure, temperature, altitude and low-frequency radio signals. After gathering all their data, NASA's NEBP invited the bunch to present their findings at the Academic High-Altitude Conference, solidifying their efforts as a boon to the scientific community as a whole.

“Working on this project has been a fulfilling conclusion to my collegiate journey,” said Grullon. “The skills I developed during this collaboration directly contributed to my internship and job offer at Aurora.”

“It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other NEBP teams and share our research,” added Reed. “We received valuable feedback and ideas for future experiments.”

FMI: www.erau.edu