SO LONG, SIG STENLUND

It wouldn't be surprising to catch Sig Stenlund sailing out from 
NCAR tomorrow in a giant balloon, like a belated
Wizard of Oz.  Alas, Sig will be retiring in a more ordinary fashion.  
But he's leaving behind a nonordinary legacy of innovation in 
adapting balloons for atmospheric research.

Sig is wrapping up 23 years as an engineer in the Atmospheric 
Technology Division (ATD).  He came to NCAR in 1970 after 
almost a decade at G. T. Sheldahl, a balloon manufacturing firm in 
Northfield, Minnesota, and "one of the main sources for NCAR 
balloons at the time," Sig recalls.

"I was fortunate enough to be involved [at Sheldahl] in developing 
the first superpressure balloon for the U.S. Air Force," says Sig.  For 
NCAR, the Air Force, and other users, these balloons enabled long-
term sampling of the stratosphere at a time before satellites had 
come of age.  Launched from Southern Hemisphere sites such as 
Christchurch, New Zealand, and Ascension Island, the balloons 
amazed researchers with their in-flight longevity.  "When one of 
our first balloons achieved a 30-day flight, we felt it was a major 
success.  But after I got to NCAR, I realized that anything less than 
30 days of flight was a dismal failure.  Some of our balloons 
survived for two years."

At Sheldahl, Sig helped construct a balloon as tall as the Empire 
State Building (around 1,100 feet, or 330 meters).  His creations at 
NCAR with scientist Vin Lally and others in the Global 
Atmospheric Measurements Program (GAMP) were less 
mammoth but still impressive, in the range of several dozen feet 
in diameter.  They were designed to circle the earth at a given 
latitude, says Sig.  "I handled the mechanical launch equipment, 
logistics, and balloon design.  I used to spend a lot of time working 
with the balloon manufacturers, such as Raven and Sheldahl."  
One of Sig's specialties was devising launch vehicles that could 
accelerate balloons to the ambient wind speed, easing their take-off.  
Platforms for shipboard launch were another focus of his work.

In the late 1980s, after NCAR stopped using superpressure 
balloons, Sig began designing parachutes for dropwindsondes (the 
weather-instrument packages dropped from airplanes).  His 
patented square-cone parachute is now used by the Air Force to 
obtain measurements in and around hurricanes.

Born close to Northfield, Sig went to St. Olaf's College before 
starting work at Sheldahl.  He worked briefly for Pepsico (then 
Pepsi-Cola), designing a mirrored-dome pavilion for the company 
at the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan.  "That was an exciting 
time - lots of well-known people came to our pavilion, including 
the future Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.  I thought 
about inviting them over to my place while they're in Colorado 
this month," he laughs, "but I doubt they'd come."

Sig and his wife, Betty - a familiar face to many as a temporary 
receptionist in the Outreach Program several years ago - will use 
their east Boulder home as a jumping-off point for travels after 
Sig's official retirement tomorrow, 10 June.  "We'd like to do more 
camping - in Arizona during the winter and Wyoming in the 
summer.  I've got a few jobs around the house and some activities 
I looked at doing a few years ago when I was laid off for a time.  But 
I'm also saving some time for shooting and hunting."  Friends and 
colleagues are invited to help launch Sig's retirement at a 3:00 p.m. 
party tomorrow in the ATD atrium (north side of the second floor, 
FL1).  BH