Balloon Training (Thursday)

So I realize it's Sunday, and the following pictures are from Thursday...but this is the first time I've had some downtime to catch up with things! Anyway, on Thursday we did some balloon training, learning how to use all of the sounding equipment, and how to fill and launch a balloon. We had some problems, as the first two sondes ended up being bad, with temperature readings 5C off from our surface station for quality control, but we were still able to learn how to do everything, so now we're ready for action! Here are some pictures:

The team working on setting up the sonde prior to launch. We use a special machine in the truck to acquire and condition the sonde prior to launch. Once this is done, we keep the sonde in an aspirator that blows air over it and keeps the temperature sensor shaded so we don't get an inaccurate reading from having the sonde sitting in the sun or on the ground. The aspirator is the thing that looks like a TV tray near the middle of the picture.



A closeup of one of our sondes, sitting on the older style aspirator that will be used by the NSSL trucks. The NCAR trucks have a newer aspirator design that is more compact.


Ready to launch. Tim explains balloon launch procedures to Dr. Parker, while Matt holds the balloon.