Sampler flight successfully conducted

Bangalore, April 29: The Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO and Antrix Corporation Limited, the apex marketing agency under the De...

Bangalore, April 29: The Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO and Antrix Corporation Limited, the apex marketing agency under the Department of Space DoS, today successfully conducted semi-commercial cryogenic sampler flight 8212; for ozone depletion studies 8212; for Germany-based Max Planck Institute.

Under a semi-commercial agreement, a cryogenic sampler payload weighing 405 kg developed by ISRO was launched successfully this morning from national scientific balloon facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, employing a 1.5 lakh cubic metre balloon, ISRO announced.

ISRO stated that it had developed an advanced technology cryogenic sampler payload for measurement of substances that deplete earth8217;s ozone layer in the stratosphere as also greenhouse warming substances in the troposphere.

India is one among the few countries in the world to develop and successfully employ this advanced cryogenic technique. The instrument enables measurement of most of the ozone depleting substances contained in Montreal protocol to which India is a signatory, an ISRO release said.

Learning of the specific advantages of the ISRO8217;s cryogenic techniques, the Max Planck institute approached ISRO/Antrix for making available the sophisticated instrumentation for ozone depletion studies on semi-commercial basis. The launch was successful in all respects, ISRO said.

ISRO said it had received more requests for providing this cryogenic sampler payload expertise for conducting scientific investigations in atmospheric sciences and other areas.

Liquid propulsion systems centre here, Kerala Hi-tech Industries at Thiruvananthapuram and Bharat Electronics here, together with a few other industries, participated in the fabrication of this instrument, designed by ISRO.

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ISRO said most of the ozone depleting substances were produced and released into the atmosphere by the developed countries while India8217;s contribution towards these adverse effects was less than 0.1 per cent.

However, ISRO said, the atmosphere dynamics were such that the abundance of these substances in the tropical region was an index of global ozone destructive potential of these substances.