MIPAS-B: balloon-borne experiments, atmospheric compounds measurements, flight of 31 March 2011

MIPAS-B (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding - Balloonborne) is an advanced Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectrometer specially tailored to the operation on a stratospheric balloon gondola. It allows precise limb emission sounding of chemical constituents related to the stratospheric ozone problem and the greenhouse effect. This method is appropriate to obtain vertical profiles of ozone and a considerable number of key radicals (NO, NO2), reservoir species (HNO3, N2O5, ClONO2, and HO2NO2) as well as source gases (CH4, N2O, H2O, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-22, CCl4, CF4, C2H6, and SF6) simultaneously, with an altitude resolution of 2 to 3 km.
The MIPAS-B experiment was also thought as precursor for a space version of MIPAS actually installed onboard ENVISAT.
This flight is involved in the ENRICHED campaign.