Stratospheric balloons can strengthen Arctic monitoring

Press release
14 August 2025

Danish company collaborates with Danish Technological Institute (DTI) and University of Southern Denmark (SDU) to build national capacity and infrastructure for stratospheric balloons — a technology offering great potential for monitoring everything from endangered ecosystems to maritime activity around Greenland.

Stratospheric balloons have long been used for purposes such as weather measurements, but new technology and a new Danish initiative now mean that these balloons can function as advanced observation platforms — and particularly in the Arctic region, the technology holds significant potential.

The Arctic is undergoing rapid change, presenting new challenges for the environment, national security, and infrastructure. Here, continuous monitoring can be crucial — for example, to detect the movement of ice, protect against illegal fishing, or identify suspicious maritime activity.

− From an altitude of 20 kilometers, stratospheric balloons can be equipped with sensors and cameras capable of monitoring everything from endangered ecosystems to critical subsea cables and suspicious vessels near Greenland, says Nicolai Iversen, CEO of Spaceline.

− It is also far less resource-intensive than launching satellites, and the missions can be conducted without dependence on foreign actors, he adds.

Spaceline, based in Odense, develops and produces both the balloon platforms themselves and advanced sensors that can be customised for various monitoring tasks — in collaboration with DTI and SDU, with support from NextGen Robotics, co-funded by the EU and the Danish Board of Business Development.

Continuous eyes on critical infrastructure

In addition to being less costly and easier to deploy than traditional satellites, one of the key advantages of stratospheric balloons is that they can deliver live data from a specific area.

− When a satellite passes over and takes a picture, it takes a while before it comes back again. So, if you want to keep a continuous watch on something — it could be tracking how animals move or monitoring critical infrastructure — a balloon can stay over the same area for around a month and perform ongoing measurements, explains Mikkel Labori Olsen, Product Manager at DTI.

DTI acts as a technology advisor to Spaceline, providing expertise in advanced data handling, artificial intelligence, and the integration of new sensor types.

Additionally, the institute advises on building and automating infrastructure, enabling Spaceline’s balloons to be further developed and scaled for future missions in the Arctic and other regions where continuous monitoring is essential.

An important supplement

Although stratospheric balloons introduce new possibilities, they should not be seen as a direct replacement for either satellites or drones.

Instead, they serve as a valuable supplement to an already complex and integrated data collection system, emphasises Nicolai Iversen.

− Satellites provide global coverage and can survey large land areas quickly, while drones enable highly precise and local operations closer to the ground surface. Balloons operate at a unique altitude, allowing for sustained, regional monitoring over longer periods with more flexibility than satellites. At the same time, they are less conspicuous than drones and can access areas where drone flights are difficult or subject to restrictions, he notes.

− With integrated solutions, we can achieve a much more detailed, robust, and flexible real-time picture of dynamic conditions in the Arctic. This can be crucial for authorities, researchers, or businesses that need to respond quickly to changes or potential threats, adds Mikkel Labori Olsen from DTI.