STRAPOLETE (an acronym derived from the three french words for Stratosphere, Polar and Summer) was a stratospheric balloon launch campaign carried out between August and September 2009 from Esrange launch base, near Kiruna, Sweden. It was funded by French agencies ANR, CNES and IPEV, as a contribution to the International Polar Year.

The objective of the campaign was to perform measurements of the main characteristics of the summertime arctic stratosphere which remained largely unexplored as the vast majority of the balloon launch campaigns in the past were focused on the study of the polar vortex associated with the winter ozone loss processes.

The campaign was under management of the balloon group of the French Space Agency (CNES) and counted with the participation of several european research institutions.

The instruments deployed during the campaign included UV-visible and infrared instruments, remote and in situ sensing embarked spectrometers which provided detailed information on vertical distributions of more than fifteen chemical tracers and reactive species from the upper troposphere to the middle stratosphere. Also a number of in situ optical aerosol counters, a UV-visible remote spectrometer for the aerosol extinction and a photopolarimeter provided information on the nature and size distribution of the stratospheric aerosols.

A total of eight flights were performed using balloons that ranged from 35 000 m3 to 400 000 m3 of volume transporting scientific payloads from 90 kg to 500 kg. Also during the campaign CNES performed two technological flights to test new balloon systems.

Launch base	Date	Flight Duration	Experiment	Payload landing place or cause of the failure
ESRANGE	8/2/2009	4 h	ELHYSA + STAC	20 km SW of Kiruna, Sweden
ESRANGE	8/7/2009	5 h	SPIRALE (Spectroscopie Infra-Rouge par Absorption de Laser Embarqué) + STAC	In the Sjaunja Nature Reserve, 40 km SW of Kiruna, Sweden
ESRANGE	8/14/2009	~ 8 h	LPMA-IASI/SWIR (Limb Profile Monitor of the Atmosphere) + STAC	Near the north border of ESRANGE, Sweden
ESRANGE	8/18/2009	7 h	µRADIBAL (RADIomètre BALlon)	A few miles E of Sonkamuotka, Finland
ESRANGE	8/24/2009	5 h	SPIRALE (Spectroscopie Infra-Rouge par Absorption de Laser Embarqué) + STAC	27 km SSE from Kiruna, Sweden
ESRANGE	8/25/2009	7 h 30 m	SALOMON-N2 (Spectroscopie d'Absorption Lunaire pour l'Observation des Minoritaires Ozone et NOx - Nacelle 2)	Near Nedre Soppero, 57 km NE from Kiruna, Sweden
ESRANGE	8/26/2009	4 h	ELHYSA + STAC	8 km N of Knoksu, Sweden
ESRANGE	9/6/2009	---	TECHNOLOGICAL FLIGHT	Near Nedre Soppero, 57 km NE from Kiruna, Sweden
ESRANGE	9/7/2009	16 h	LPMA (Limb Profile Monitor of the Atmosphere) + DOAS + STAC	10 km al Norwest of Seitajarvi, Finland
ESRANGE	9/12/2009	---	TECHNOLOGICAL FLIGHT	120 km ESE from Kiruna, Sweden