Weather Balloons Facts
Weather Balloons Facts
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| Interesting Weather Balloons Facts: |
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| Weather balloons can be used to determine current weather conditions as well as to provide data for forecasting and for research. |
| Weather balloons can also be used for purposes outside of the weather field including for aviation purposes, monitoring of pollution, video creation, photography, and research. |
| In 1958 weather balloons called transosondes were experimented with to record debris from atomic fallout. These were meant to stay in place for a long period of time. |
| Both civilian and military governments use weather balloons. The National Weather Service is a meteorological agency in the U.S. that launches weather balloons on a regular basis and shares the data with countries around the world. |
| The first meteorologist known to launch weather balloons, Leon Teisserenc de Bort, subsequently had a moon crater and a crater on Mars named after him because of his work. |
| The Continental Drift Theory, discovered by Alfred Wegener in the early 20th century, was a result of his use of weather balloons. Although he published his theory in 1912 nobody really accepted it until 30 years after his death, in the 1960s. He also had a moon crater and Mars crater named after him. |
| Weather balloons come in a variety of sizes from 350 grams to as much as 1500 grams. Weather balloons are listed by their weight not their physical size as this varies somewhat. |
| Weather balloons can reach tremendous heights, with some high altitude balloons reaching as high as 32 miles high into the stratosphere namely the BU60-1, in 2002 which reached 32.9 miles. |
| Heavier weather balloons cost more to launch because more gas must be used. |
| A balloonist named Jean-Pierre Blanchard launched from Paris in 1785 with American John Jeffries to cross the English Channel in an attempt to measure the upper atmosphere for the first time but a near crash caused Jeffries to throw his equipment overboard. The mission was scrapped. |
| Some companies have begun to offer a funeral service that scatters human ashes at high altitudes with weather balloons. This service would benefit those people that wish their ashes to be scattered at a high level above the earth, possibly because they spent part of their lives high above the earth which would be the case with pilots and skydivers. |
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