Pictures of the Southampton Azure balloon

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[img]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2970_20_Southampton-uses-Microsoft-Azure-to-launch-above-the-clouds.jpg[/img]

Southampton University has successfully recovered instrumentation launched into the stratosphere using a high altitude balloon. An HTC smartphone running a Windows Phone 7 app was used to monitor and update tracking information for the balloon via the Microsoft Azure cloud as it ascended to over 60,000 feet. The experiment paves the way to using relatively low cost helium balloons as launch vehicles for instruments that are able to take measurements and samples from the upper atmosphere.
[img width=374 height=500]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2972_20_Preparing-for-launch.jpg[/img]

Preparing for launch
The payload that can be launched by the helium balloon needs to be quite light. The experiment aims to demonstrate how a balloon can be accurately tracked in-flight, in order to aid recovery of the instruments.
[img width=500 height=375]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2973_20_Preflight-checks.jpg[/img]
Preflight checks
Before the launch, the team uses an application to update tracking information, to help the researchers more accurately determine the location of the landing site.
[img width=500 height=375]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2974_20_The-launch.jpg[/img]

The launch
Once the flight path has been determined the balloon can be launched.
[img width=371 height=500]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2975_20_Seconds-after-launch.jpg[/img]

Seconds after launch
The balloon ascends to the stratosphere then bursts, allowing the payload to descend using a parachute. For this experiment, as the balloon ascends, the payload - an HTC Windows Phone 7 smartphone - sends data via a portal into the Microsoft Azure cloud, which updates telemetry. This data is used by the researchers on the ground to update their estimate of where the payload will land.
[img width=197 height=250]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2976_20_The-Segoz-App.jpg[/img]

The Segoz App
This application was developed to enable the Southampton team monitor progress of the balloon.
[img width=332 height=500]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2977_20_The-Segoz-Logger-in-action.jpg[/img]
The Segoz Logger in action
Here is a screenshot of the Segoz Windows Phone 7 App, showing live tracking information from the balloon. Steven Johnson, who built the app, says the phone is a good device for data capture compared to a dedicated data logger, as it contains a relatively powerful 1GHz processor and up to 32Gbytes of memory
[img width=500 height=332]http://www.computerweekly.com/PhotoGalleries/245759/2978_20_Safe-landing.jpg[/img]

Safe landing
The safe recovery of the payload shows that the technique of using a smartphone to provide real-time telemetry can be applied in upper atmophere experiments. According to Andras Sobester, research fellow at University of Southampton, there are not many options for launching sensors into the upper atmosphere. The helium balloon is the cheapest approach. "A fully manned research aircraft costs £10,000 per hour," he said.

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