Weather balloon

"Sounding balloon" redirects here. Not to be confused with observation balloon. This article is about atmospheric and meteorological sounding balloons. For balloon space probes, see List of Solar System probes.

Transosonde ready for release
Picture taken at approximately 30 km above Oregon using a 1,500 gram weather balloon
Rawinsonde weather balloon just after launch. Notice a parachute in the center of the string and a small instrument box at the end. After release it measures many parameters. These include temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and wind speed and wind direction. This information is transmitted back to surface observers.

A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde. To obtain wind data, they can be tracked by radar, radio direction finding, or navigation systems (such as the satellite-based Global Positioning System, GPS). Balloons meant to stay at a constant altitude for long periods of time are known as transosondes. Weather balloons that do not carry an instrument pack are used to determine upper-level winds and the height of cloud layers. For such balloons, a theodolite or total station is used to track the balloon's azimuth and elevation, which are then converted to estimated wind speed and direction and/or cloud height, as applicable.

Weather balloons are launched around the world for observations used to diagnose current conditions as well as by human forecasters and computer models for weather forecasting. Between 900 and 1,300 locations around the globe do routine releases, two or four times daily.[1][2][3][4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Weather Facts: Radiosonde | weatheronline.co.uk". www.weatheronline.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  3. ^ "Observations - Data - Modelling". public.wmo.int. 1 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  4. ^ WeatherSTEM. "Upper-Air Observations". WeatherSTEM. Retrieved 6 April 2023.