Our Goals

The Balloon measurement campaigns of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (BATAL) is a series of field missions to study the transport of pollution in the Upper Troposphere and Lower during the Summer Asian Monsoon. The missions involve scientists, engineers and students from the United States, India, Saudi-Arabia, France and Switzerland and eleven different institutes including NASA’s Langley Research Center. The key objectives are to provide in situ balloon-borne observations to understand how Asian pollution can affect climate and stratospheric chemistry during the Summer Asian Monsoon, and to validate CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) and SAGE/ISS (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station) satellite observations.+ Download the 2017 PDF Planning Document

2017.12.31: 2017 BATAL Mission Report
2017.08.04: NASA Langley Pollution Measurement Campaign Begins in India
2015.12.01: Balloon-borne surveys of the atmosphere
2014.09.12: Scientists Fly Weather Balloons in India to Solve Atmospheric Puzzle
2014.05.26: NASA Balloon Campaign Goes to Australia
2014.05.23: NASA Balloon Campaign Studies Effects of Volcanic Eruption