An Arctic Field Campaign Using Stratospheric Balloons for Micro‐Dropsonde Deployment: Insights and Evaluation

ABSTRACT

The Arctic remains one of the most data‐sparse regions on Earth, limiting the accuracy of numerical weather prediction and operational forecasting. A February 2025 field campaign, conducted in Iceland, tested a prototype stratospheric dropsonde system aimed at enhancing vertical atmospheric profiling across the Arctic environment. The campaign intended to demonstrate the systems' capability to operate in harsh Arctic environments, as well as its potential to address observational gaps in the troposphere critical for improving forecasts of high‐impact weather systems such as Arctic cyclones. Over a 12‐day period, 10 Voltitude StratoSondes were launched from Eastern Iceland, subsequently releasing targeted micro‐dropsondes from a range of Arctic locations. These data are compared against the Met Office Global Model to assess biases in temperature, humidity and wind speed/direction. Averaged across 40 dropsonde descents, mean biases with respect to the Met Office's global model were found to be +0.32°C for temperature, −3.9% for relative humidity and −0.22 and +0.06 m s ⁻¹ for zonal and meridional wind components, respectively. Preliminary results indicate that micro‐dropsonde profiles provide valuable high‐resolution observations in regions poorly sampled by conventional networks. The campaign also highlights logistical and technical challenges associated with Arctic field operations and underscores the potential for emerging balloon‐based observation systems to address critical polar observation gaps.