NCAR and NCSU will launch instrumented balloons to measure the pre-storm environment and help refine the V2 forecast/target for each day. They will also measure pre-existing boundaries, and their interactions with the storms, and also storm-environment interactions.
NCSU and NCAR will launch a total of 267 balloons from these mobile ballooning facilities. Mobile ballooning facilities will launch balloons with instruments, or sondes, attached in key parts of the supercell. The sondes will measure temperature, pressure, relative humidity and winds. The data will be transmitted back to the Field Command vehicle. Credit: NCAR
Bill Brown (NCAR) and Adam French (NCSU) prepare a balloon for launching. They have perfected the process down to about 8 minutes.
After any particles and dust have been cleaned off the instrument, it is attached to the balloon.
The balloon is about to be released, and a receiver on the ground records information.
Hundreds of radiosondes (weather balloons) were launched to sample weather conditions aloft during VORTEX2.
