Patturns Of Highperactivity: Thursday - Mountian Dew day... Weather Balloon day

Today went from.... hmmmmmm...... to Zing!

I ate my lunch around 2pm. Yeah....

One of the cool things at work today was a new radiosonde balloon launch at 11am. There is new software to support it also. Had to rush about at first to enter in a new number but the launch went well. Here are some pictures...

This is the table that they inflate the weather balloons on. That's one there. ( left ).. and also the hydrogen tanks to fill them up

Filling.. along with the parachute for when the balloon bursts and tag and line.

Coming up off the table ....

The "do not touch the balloon" tag... because the oil on your fingers can make it burst prematurely... you can touch it after its fallen back to earth.

The balloon will automatically stop filling when it reaches a certain

level of hydrogen by lifting the collar its attached to.

This is the new sonde. Smaller and a little weird with all the arms which are sensors.

Taking the balloon out to launch.

Normally this is a one person job but with this new sonde it takes some getting used to and it was a training day so all of the HMT's were out.

Off it goes....and it goes quickly.

By Bye now... see how fast it went.

Inside and tracking. Its now a GPS based system. Very nice compared with the old ART 2 system.

There is a lot more to see and a lot more done before and after the launch... but I can only put so many pictures here.... Everything went well and so starting the 15th we will be using this type sonde from now on.

Right after that I had to rush up to the radar to meet some people about some Air Conditioners... It was my first of two meetings up there. So... two trips up and two back... Oh.. tired! It was hot, stinky and there were flies everywhere... and I watched an iPad hit the ground and shatter..... Never use an iPad to take pictures on a ladder... never good. Saw it coming and still couldnt save it...