The Balloon Experiment on Standards for Ozone Sondes (BESOS) campaign goal is to establish a set of standard operating procedures (SOP) for launching electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesondes at WMOs GAW (World Meteorological Organization, Global Atmospheric Watch) sites.

Official GAW Website: => Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW)

The campaign is a follow-on to the series of ECC chamber studies performed during the 1996-2000 Jülich Ozone Sonde Intercomparicon Experiment's (JOSIE) at the World Calibration Center for Ozone Sondes (WCCOS) in the Forschungszentrum, Jülich (Germany). Experiments were conducted inside an environmentally controlled chamber that simulates a balloon flight and includes a reference ozone measurement using a dual beam ozone photometer. The results led to a set of preliminary SOPs for the ECC ozone sondes most commonly in use.

The preliminary SOPs recommended by JOSIE will be tested during BESOS with an intercomparison launch in the real atmosphere for quality assurance and suitability before the procedures are applyed to sonde launched in various GAW stations.

BESOS is sponsored by GAW and NOAA National Weather Service under the leadership of Dr Michael Proffitt, Senior Scientific Officer at WMO in Geneva, Switzerland.

When: April 5-23, 2004.

Where: University of Wyoming at Laramie, Wyoming USA.
             Hosted by the Department of Atmospheric Science.

Useful Links for Participants:
PHOTO GALLERY updated 2004-08-09
City of Laramie
Local area map
Hotel List (PDF)

Experimental Set-up: Experimental Set-up: The BESOS campaign will include a large balloon carrying a uv-absorption photometer as the ozone reference instrument and about 18 ozonesondes, individually prepared to test the SOPs. The BESOS gondola, which includes an on-bard computerized data system to collect, store and transmit the data, is expected to reach at least 30 km (~10 hPa). After reaching maximum altitude, the gondola is to be released on parachute and is expected to be safely recovered. The data collected during BESOS are expected to be sufficient to verify the GAW SOPs for the world-wide ozonesonde network.

Participating Institutions: (listed alphabetically)

• Central Aerological Observatory (CAO), Russia
• Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany
• Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland
• Forschungszentrum Jülich , Germany
• Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW), Switzerland
• Japan Meterological Agency (JMA), Japan
• Meteo Suisse, Switzerland
• Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), Canada
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), USA
• NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), USA
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), USA
• Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Norway
• National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand
• NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, USA
• NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL), USA
• Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI), Belgium
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland
• University of Wyoming, USA
• Université de la Réunion, France

• Jülich Ozone Sonde Intercomparison Experiment (JOSIE): http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg-ii/josie/
• NDSC - Ozonesone page: http://www.nilu.no/projects/ndsc/
• Southern Hemisphere ADditional OZonesondes (SHADOZ): http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/shadoz
• World Ozone and UV Radiation Data Center (WOUDC): http://www.woudc.org

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