Weather Balloons at McMurdo

The building I work in is a hubbub of activity.  McMurdo Operations is here making sure that every person with USAP out in the field is safely accounted for.  MacCenter is here tracking every flight on helicopter and plane made in Antarctica with USAP. Raven Ops is down the hall organizing all the LC-130 flights and crews across the continent and up to Christchurch. And MacWeather is here predicting all the weather for all these flight.  In the weather office is Austin, the weather observer.  She was telling me a bit about what she does to observe the weather and then  I got to go with her to Launch a weather balloon! 


MacWeather  launchs balloons two times a day at 11am and 11pm,  365 days a year.   Before I could even upload these pictures to my computer, the data from my balloon had already come back.  My balloon and risen to a height of 72,752 feet and it's ascension rate was 311.6 meters per minute.   The balloons will fly for about two hours and then come down. The weather forecasters here use these balloons and the data they collect to accurately write the forecasts that come out every four hours throughout the day. 

This is the radiosonde.  The part on the very end registers humidity and next to it registers the temperature and it's all tracked by GPS.   

The balloon before it's been inflated. She has to keep them in a warmer so that the latex isn't brittle. 

There it goes! 

Here it is, fully inflated! You'll notice it's floating a bit. That's the measure of when to stop filling it. As soon as it lifts the weight off the table.

Now we have to call air traffic control to make sure that we can launch a balloon into the sky. 

The balloon, once it is released will raise to a height of 70,000 to 80,000 feet and will expand to a diameter of 13 feet in the stratosphere.  

 Outside we have to wait for a calm moment so we can release the balloon. 

We took some time to pose with the blue skies. 

When the wind finally calms down you unroll a bit of the twine that attaches the sonde to the balloon. 

Next just wait for the right moment! 

And, release! 

Bye!