{rfName}
Da

Indexed in

License and Use

Icono OpenAccess

Altmetrics

Analysis of institutional authors

Sirks, Ellen LCorresponding Author

Share

January 28, 2026
Publications
>
Article

Data Downloaded via Parachute from a NASA Super-Pressure Balloon

Publicated to: Aerospace. 10 (11): 960- - 2023-11-01 10(11), DOI: 10.3390/aerospace10110960

Authors:

Sirks, Ellen L; Sirks, Ellen L; Massey, Richard; Gill, Ajay S; Gill, Ajay S; Anderson, Jason; Benton, Steven J; Benton, Steven J; Brown, Anthony M; Brown, Anthony M; Clark, Paul; English, Joshua; Everett, Spencer W; Everett, Spencer W; Fraisse, Aurelien A; Fraisse, Aurelien A; Franco, Hugo; Hartley, John W; Hartley, John W; Harvey, David; Holder, Bradley; Hunter, Andrew; Huff, Eric M; Huff, Eric M; Hynous, Andrew; Jauzac, Mathilde; Jones, William C; Jones, William C; Joyce, Nikky; Kennedy, Duncan; Lagattuta, David; Leung, Jason S -Y; Leung, Jason S -Y; Li, Lun; Lishman, Stephen; Luu, Thuy Vy T; Luu, Thuy Vy T; Mccleary, Jacqueline E; Mccleary, Jacqueline E; Nagy, Johanna M; Nagy, Johanna M; Netterfield, C Barth; Netterfield, C Barth; Paracha, Emaad; Purcaru, Robert; Redmond, Susan F; Redmond, Susan F; Rhodes, Jason D; Rhodes, Jason D; Robertson, Andrew; Romualdez, L Javier; Romualdez, L Javier; Roth, Sarah; Salter, Robert; Schmoll, Juergen; Shaaban, Mohamed M; Shaaban, Mohamed M; Smith, Roger; Smith, Russell; Tam, Sut Ieng; Vassilakis, Georgios N; Vassilakis, Georgios N; Oh, Hyun-Ung
[+]

Affiliations

- Author
Acad Sinica, Inst Astron & Astrophys, 1 Sec 4, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei 10617, Taiwan - Author
ARC Ctr Excellence Dark Matter Particle Phys, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia - Author
Balloon Program Off, NASA Wallops Flight Facil, 34200 Fulton St, Wallops Isl, VA 23337 USA - Author
CALTECH, 1200 E Calif Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA - Author
CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91011 USA - Author
Columbia Sci Balloon Facil, 1510 Farm Rd 3224, Palestine, TX 75803 USA - Author
Div Engn Sci, 40 St George St, Room 2110, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4, Canada - Author
EPFL, Lab Astrophys, Observ Sauverny, CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland - Author
Northeastern Univ, Dept Phys, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 USA - Author
Palantir Technol, 1875 Lawrence St, Denver, CO 80202 USA - Author
Princeton Univ, Dept Phys, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA - Author
StarSpec Technol Inc, Unit C-5,1600 Ind Rd, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada - Author
Univ Durham, Dept Phys, South Rd, Durham DH1 3LE, England - Author
Univ Sydney, Sch Phys, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia - Author
Univ Toronto Inst Aerosp Studies UTIAS, 4925 Dufferin St, Toronto, ON M3H 5T6, Canada - Author
Univ Toronto, Dept Phys, 60 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada - Author
Univ Toronto, Dunlap Inst Astron & Astrophys, 50 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada - Author
Washington Univ, Dept Phys, 1 Brookings Dr, St Louis, MO 63130 USA - Author
See more

Abstract

In April 2023, the superBIT telescope was lifted to the Earth's stratosphere by a helium-filled super-pressure balloon to acquire astronomical imaging from above (99.5% of) the Earth's atmosphere. It was launched from New Zealand and then, for 40 days, circumnavigated the globe five times at a latitude 40 to 50 degrees south. Attached to the telescope were four "drs" (Data Recovery System) capsules containing 5 TB solid state data storage, plus a gnss receiver, Iridium transmitter, and parachute. Data from the telescope were copied to these, and two were dropped over Argentina. They drifted 61 km horizontally while they descended 32 km, but we predicted their descent vectors within 2.4 km: in this location, the discrepancy appears irreducible below similar to 2 km because of high speed, gusty winds and local topography. The capsules then reported their own locations within a few metres. We recovered the capsules and successfully retrieved all of superBIT's data despite the telescope itself being later destroyed on landing.
[+]

Keywords

Balloon instrumentationData compressionData handlingLarge detector-systems performanceModels and simulations

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal AEROSPACE due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 14/52, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Engineering, Aerospace. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Aerospace Engineering.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.09. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.38 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-12, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 8
  • Scopus: 9
[+]

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-12:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 4.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 5 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 296.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 12 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 36 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
[+]

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Australia; Canada; Switzerland; Taiwan; United Kingdom; United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (SIRKS, ELLEN LAURA) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been SIRKS, ELLEN LAURA.

[+]

Awards linked to the item

This research was funded by the Royal Society (grant RGF/EA/180026), the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (grant ST/V005766/1), and an Impact Acceleration Award to Durham University. Launch and operational support for the 2023SUPERBIT flight from Wanaka, New Zealand, was provided by NASA. Funding for the development of SUPERBIT was provided by NASA (grant APRAN NX16AF65G), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the Canadian Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Durham University's astronomy survey fund. This work was done in part at JPL, run under a contract for NASA by Caltech.
[+]