Everything you always wanted to know about weather balloons but you didn't know who to ask

Sure, there are some nifty things to see in Washington D.C. Like, say, the White House. and the Capitol building. And Washington Monument. And the Lincoln Memorial. And the National Gallery. And the Smithsonian Institute And ... I could go on for several guidebooks, but you get the picture. No doubt many of you have seen many of these things.

But how many of you have watched a demonstration of how to launch a weather balloon from the Sterling test site adjacent to Dulles Airport? Huh? Huh?

I thought so.

See, every day in the morning and the evening, hundreds and hundreds of weather balloons are launched from National Weather Service stations throughout the U.S.¹ These balloons carry devices called radiosondes, from the Old English word "sonde" meaning "messenger". Also, the word "radio", meaning "radio".

The radiosonde has a "thermistor", which is a "itty bitty thing that looks like a drop of solder but actually registers the temperature"; a "hygristor", which is a "thing that registers the humidity"; and a "transmitter", which is "a thing that transmits". Also, it contains a GPS, which is a "thing that tells you where you are". I know, because Douglas Adams told me so in a video at the Air and Space Museum.²

While it is in the air, the radiosonde transmits the readings from these devices every second. This data is fed into computer models that give us about as good an idea of what the weather is going to be like as we are going to get. This information is then presented by television news meteorologists who seem to have a larger budget for doing their hair and makeup, who without actually saying so make out that it derives from the station's own radar equipment which they have given a silly name and advertised relentlessly in order to differentiate themselves from the other talking heads on that other local news station.³

When I was six or seven, my dad took me out to the National Weather Station in Huron, SD where he worked, and I watched quite a few balloon launches. They haven't changed much since then, of course, but they are rolling out a new system to control the launches and present the data, which is what my dad is here to poke at before he has to teach it in a few months, and what they showed off to me this morning.

After we'd done about all that we could do for the day, we headed out for lunch and thence to the International Spy Museum. However, by the time we actually got to the International Spy Museum, we only had about an hour to spend there anyway, so we opted instead to browse the International Spy Museum gift shop. I got a Rosetta Stone keychain and two postcards. One is for my little brother and has a picture of the Enigma Cipher Machine on it. I used this Java applet to encode a message for him as a postscript. :D One is for laislabevita. I think she'll be amused.

Then, I admit, we'd had enough. We ducked into the National Gallery to catch a few more paintings, a drink, and some A/C, and then we went back to our hotel to lounge around and watch the complimentary videocassettes, stopping only at the posh grocery store where we had lunch to buy cherries, coffee, and super dark chocolate for dessert.

Quite a satisfying day, in all.

¹Also, around the world. But I'm a little hazier on that point.

²Among other reasons. Also, a moment of mourning goes here.

³At least, that's how I hear the story. My sources might be biased. Or exaggerating. :D

Everything you always wanted to know about weather balloons but you didn't know who to ask

Sure, there are some nifty things to see in Washington D.C. Like, say, the White House. and the Capitol building. And Washington Monument. And the Lincoln Memorial. And the National Gallery. And the Smithsonian Institute And ... I could go on for several guidebooks, but you get the picture. No doubt many of you have seen many of these things.

But how many of you have watched a demonstration of how to launch a weather balloon from the Sterling test site adjacent to Dulles Airport? Huh? Huh?

I thought so.

See, every day in the morning and the evening, hundreds and hundreds of weather balloons are launched from National Weather Service stations throughout the U.S.¹ These balloons carry devices called radiosondes, from the Old English word "sonde" meaning "messenger". Also, the word "radio", meaning "radio".

The radiosonde has a "thermistor", which is a "itty bitty thing that looks like a drop of solder but actually registers the temperature"; a "hygristor", which is a "thing that registers the humidity"; and a "transmitter", which is "a thing that transmits". Also, it contains a GPS, which is a "thing that tells you where you are". I know, because Douglas Adams told me so in a video at the Air and Space Museum.²

While it is in the air, the radiosonde transmits the readings from these devices every second. This data is fed into computer models that give us about as good an idea of what the weather is going to be like as we are going to get. This information is then presented by television news meteorologists who seem to have a larger budget for doing their hair and makeup, who without actually saying so make out that it derives from the station's own radar equipment which they have given a silly name and advertised relentlessly in order to differentiate themselves from the other talking heads on that other local news station.³

When I was six or seven, my dad took me out to the National Weather Station in Huron, SD where he worked, and I watched quite a few balloon launches. They haven't changed much since then, of course, but they are rolling out a new system to control the launches and present the data, which is what my dad is here to poke at before he has to teach it in a few months, and what they showed off to me this morning.

After we'd done about all that we could do for the day, we headed out for lunch and thence to the International Spy Museum. However, by the time we actually got to the International Spy Museum, we only had about an hour to spend there anyway, so we opted instead to browse the International Spy Museum gift shop. I got a Rosetta Stone keychain and two postcards. One is for my little brother and has a picture of the Enigma Cipher Machine on it. I used this Java applet to encode a message for him as a postscript. :D One is for laislabevita. I think she'll be amused.

Then, I admit, we'd had enough. We ducked into the National Gallery to catch a few more paintings, a drink, and some A/C, and then we went back to our hotel to lounge around and watch the complimentary videocassettes, stopping only at the posh grocery store where we had lunch to buy cherries, coffee, and super dark chocolate for dessert.

Quite a satisfying day, in all.

¹Also, around the world. But I'm a little hazier on that point.

²Among other reasons. Also, a moment of mourning goes here.

³At least, that's how I hear the story. My sources might be biased. Or exaggerating. :D