The solar observatory Sunrise III, which will observe the Sun from a helium balloon at an altitude of 35 kilometers, has reached an important milestone: today scientists and engineers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany performed measurements with sunlight for the first time. For the so-called hang test, the huge gate of the MPS balloon hall opened to allow the observatory to look directly into the Sun. The test is an important part of the current preparations for the multi-day stratospheric flight of Sunrise III in early summer next year. During this flight, the observatory will collect unprecedented observational data from the Sun’s lower atmosphere, the chromosphere.
As soon as the wind and weather conditions in Kiruna are favorable, the balloon filled