White paper
Vaisala Radiosonde RS41 Unwinder with BioTwine™
The first part of this document describes the Vaisala BioTwine™ material and provides evidence of its biodegradability in different environments. The second part of this document shows that sounding parameters that are potentially sensitive to string material and unwinder design change had no statistical differences, and that therefore the measurement accuracy of the RS41 radiosonde is not affected by the change in string material. All specifications and previously-published performance white papers therefore still apply.
1. Introduction
Biodegradable Vaisala BioTwine™
Vaisala BioTwine™ is biodegradable twine that reduces micro-plastics originating from soundings operations after service.
Vaisala BioTwine™ is a cellulosebased fiber. The material is biodegradable and compostable. In biodegradation, oxidation and hydrolysis start breaking the polymer chains of the Vaisala BioTwine™, which then changes to enzymatic cleaving by different microorganisms. The resulting small sugar molecules are then used in the microorganisms’ metabolism. No microplastics are formed during the degradation. In manufacturing, the fibers are produced in a closed process where 99% of organic solvent can be recovered and reused.
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