GRIPS Eyes the Sun During Antarctic Summer

GRIPS, short for Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares, will launch December 2015, suspended underneath a football-field-sized scientific balloon. GRIPS will study the extremely high-energy particles released by solar flares, information that will help scientists pinpoint the processes that set off these explosive events. Since the sun doesn’t set at all for several weeks of the Antarctic summer, GRIPS will be able to observe the sun continuously during much or all of its flight, which the team hopes will last anywhere from 14 to 55 days. The 24/7 summer sunlight also provides a constant source of energy, powering the instrument the entire time.

Scientific balloons are a low-cost way to access Earth’s upper atmosphere up to the edge of space, allowing scientists to make measurements that are impossible from the ground.

Credit: NASA/University of California, Berkeley/Hazel Bain