The stratospheric sunset

On June 28, 2024, a stratospheric mission took place. The mission goal was to test new cameras and to film a sunset from the stratosphere. The mission was launch from Sobótka in Poland at 20:17 CET. The balloon burst at 22:37 over Nasławice at 36 km of altitude and Landed at 23:44 somewhere between Kalinowa and Oleśnica Mała, near A4 highway.

The path of the flight was as depicted below.

The mission took place under the guidance of Włodzimierz Tarnowski.

The sunset

The sunset was observing up to 25 km of altitude of the probe. The distance to the horizon at this altitude is approx. 570 km – more or less, so it can be said, that the final phase of the sunset was observed somewhere between Hamburg and Rostock.

The following pictures shows the subsequent phases of the sunset.

Altitude: 6.5 km

Altitude: 9.5 km

Altitude: 13.5 km

Altitude: 18 km

Altitude: 19 km

Altitude: 24 km

Altitude: 25.5 km

Altitude: 26 km

Altitude: 33 km

Altitude: 35.5 km

Altitude: 36 km

 

The film

The following film shows all the phases of the flight, from launch, through ascent and individual sunset states, balloon burst, till landing and finally pick up of the probe by chasing team.

Please pay attention to several phenomena:

• the shadow that the Earth casts on the atmosphere
• the sun shining upwards from under the clouds
• storms and lightnings below the probe (just before the balloon burst)
• extremely thin clouds above 36 km

Thanks to the ascending flight towards the stratosphere the sunset could have been registered approx. 40 minutes longer than on ground at the same time.

Please enjoy the film: https://youtu.be/yia-1Y0MDpU