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Creators/Authors contains: "Babich, Nicolas"

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  1. The concentration of the stratospheric ozone layer is of great interest to the atmospheric science community, since it is critical in blocking the harmful UV radiation from the sun. Typically, regular weather balloons with Electrochemical Cell (ECC) ozonesondes are used to determine the vertical profile of ozone column concentration within a flight time of ~2 hours, with a limited fraction of the data relevant to the ozone layer. Therefore, it would be ideal if ozonesonde flights can be maintained within the ozone layer (~60,000 to 80,000 ft) to maximize the efficiency in data acquisition, especially considering the rising costs of ozonesonding and high-altitude ballooning. We adapted the vented balloon with altitude-control flight capability from the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Program (NEBP) for atmospheric ozonesonding and deployed a commercial ECC ozonesonde payload with this approach from Central Texas during the 2024 total solar eclipse in the hope of (1) field testing the performance and application potential of vented balloons in horizontal ozone layer profiling and (2) monitoring the stratospheric ozone layer during the solar eclipse for an extended period of time. The adapted vent valve successfully lowered the balloon from 71,000 ft to 41,000 ft within minutes and demonstrated promising performance in the field. Unfortunately, unexpected radio communication difficulties were experienced from six hours before the totality to two hours after, leaving the second research objective largely unobtainable. 
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