Friday, February 12, 2010

I did not know that...

Did you ever stop and wonder about the various triviata involved in launching a weather balloon? Me, neither.

Apparently, though, there is quite a bit more to it than "1) Put helium in balloon. 2) Let go of balloon."

Neat.

4 comments:

  1. Well, actually, yes I do.

    We had to make one in 10th grade Science class.

    I was in the garage with three hair dryers checking the thing for leaks when I realized that my life wasn't like the cool kids on television.

    I got an A but my balloon had a less than spectular in flight; it was recovered near Gas City. Oh, well, the first air mail delivery had problems too.

    Shootin' Buddy

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  2. We found one in the middle of the street last year. At first I didn't know what it was.

    The parachute was tangled around the balloon, and never fully opened. Geeks that we are, we took it apart. It had a GPS unit, transmitter, and what we assumed were numerous pressure/temperature/humidity instruments attached to a circuit card, all powered by a couple of AA sized batteries.

    It was cool to play with.

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  3. One of my duties at the last job I had involved maintaining the weather system we had, and launching the balloons with the radiosondes on them.
    It was a gas, no pun intended.

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  4. Years ago, I found the remains of a balloon on a hillside in a remote area. Never found the radiosonde, though.

    I wondered how those things worked. Thanks for reminding me to look it up.

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