Background

Below, we give recommendations for needed technical roles for the Atmospheric Science and Engineering tracks. In addition to the technical roles, we recommend having students fill these roles (doesn't need to be a separate person):

Communications lead: coordinate information between NEBP leaders/mentor and the team; work to get local news stories published; plan team knowledge sharing

Education and outreach lead: help teammates keep track of their learning; coordinate local outreach events

Atmospheric Science

Field Campaign Roles and Recommended Skills (two work shifts required - i.e. a day shift and a night shift)

Primary Balloon Fill: Responsible for maintaining control of balloon while performing helium fill, managing helium tank and regulator pressure, and attaching radiosonde to balloon (no specific skills or background required).

Secondary Balloon Fill: Same responsibilities as the Primary Balloon Fill role, plus providing additional support as needed (no specific skills or background required).

Lufft surface weather station monitoring: Responsible for preparing radiosonde payload for balloon attachment, management of radiosonde acclimation process, and communication with local Air Traffic Control (no specific skills or background required).

Radiosonde Initialization: Responsible for initializing radiosonde using ground station software, performing helium fill value prediction, and monitoring incoming data and communications signal (background in navigating computer software is beneficial).

All Station Auxiliary: Responsible for additional support of each role, including maintaining field safety, team communications, and proper saving of all data files (basic familiarity with radiosonde launch procedures is beneficial).

Data Analysis Helpful Background Knowledge (see the Atmospheric Science course)

Physics

  • Gravity wave detection & characterization
  • Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) height analysis
  • Environmental lapse rates

Computer Science

  • Gravity wave detection code
  • Helium fill prediction code
  • Data visualization

Education

  • Student training and curriculum development/refinement
  • Information dissemination

Marketing

  • Information sharing, marketing strategies, content management

Engineering

Range Safety Officer: Responsible for range safety, weather prediction, air traffic reporting, launch day operations, first aid kits and water

Payload Officer: Responsible for connection of payload string, cut-down, SPOT setup and verification, final systems check, Iridium setup and verification, makes sure everything is powered on and reporting data

Fill and Launch Lead: Responsible for helium fill of balloon, volume calculation, lift weight calculation, and physical launch of the balloon

Data and Telemetry Lead: Responsible for monitoring data coming back from the balloon, ground station setup, ground station tracking.  Will be a systems expert on all things ground tracking and data relay.

Flight Prediction and Recovery Lead: Responsible for flight prediction, landing prediction and recovery logistics

Payload Specialist: Responsible for a specific experiment setup (Pterodactyl, video, etc.)

Software Specialist: Payload, tracking and video GUI setup and use specialist

Mechanical Specialist: Payload and ground station mechanical specialist

Electrical Specialist: Electronic hardware specialist

Launch Video Specialist: Responsible for camera and camera setup to video launch for later analysis.  Using handheld camera walk around during pre-launch and launch to make some quality video.  Store images and video in accessible location.