On October 19th I had the awesome opportunity to launch a weather balloon at McMurdo Station. A special thank you to the NPP MeteorologyMeteorology is the study of the atmosphere, weather and weather conditions. team for allowing me this opportunity.
Photo Credit: Heather Harris
Please take a few minutes to watch the video below to learn about the process of launching a weather balloon.
The graph below illustrates the data that my balloon collected. Warning, it is complicated and I don't understand everything that it means :) The "flags" on the right side of the image indicate wind direction and where the two dark vertical lines almost touch, the balloon went through a cloud.
Photo Credit: University of Wyoming College of Engineering
If you would like to see weather data collected from a different location you can go to: http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
Some additional facts about the weather balloon:
The weather balloon system costs about $200-300 to launch each balloon.
The balloon goes up about 300 meters per minute.
The balloon is filled with helium.
Date
Expedition
Weather Summary
Cloudy
Temperature
8 F
Wind Speed
15 MPH
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