Back in June, we had the pleasure of finding a weather balloon.
It was part of a test flight of several weather balloons released in
Wyoming in preparation for their deployment over Africa to follow
weather currents and track the very beginnings of hurricanes. Excited
researchers drove all the way from Boulder, CO to retrieve the balloon
they thought they had lost and the $250 check they gave us for
retrieving it was very nice on our vacation.
Now the little
unit, called a driftsonde (weather balloon, gondola and instruments
combined) is ready for release. The team has set up a station in Paris,
France and the first balloon was launched August 28 in Zinder, Niger.
Weak
weather systems, called easterly waves, move across Africa into the
ocean at about 10 and 20 degrees north. These serve as seedlings of
hurricanes since some develop into tropical storms and hurricanes, some
of which reach the United States every year. The Eastern Tropical
Atlantic is out of range for our air craft which studies hurricanes and
our researchers are inexperienced at predicting which African systems
will produce hurricanes as they move out into the ocean. The research
team from The National Center of Aeronatical Research (NCAR) hopes
their driftsonde equipment will improve our understanding of the
formation of hurricanes from the earliest stages and make prediction
easier and more reliable in the future.
As the driftsondes float
across Africa and the ocean toward the Carribean, they will release two
dropsondes per day. These instruments fall slowly toward the ocean,
sending information back to the researchers in their lab in Paris. If
conditions look promising, they can direct the driftsonde to release
more...up to once per hour.
Now if only they tracked them over the internet for the public to watch...that would be cool.
More information on this project can be found in this press release. More about weather balloons can be found here, although that is not at all what our balloon looked like. And here is a run down on information on hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons.
Updates for homeschoolers living in or moving to Nebraska.
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--Eph 1:21
But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.
--Leviticus 20:24
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