Found a UFO!!!

[ARFlyer]

I mean Weather Balloon....

I found it in the trees today and saw it was yesterday morning’s launch from the local office. So as the crow flies it made about 15 miles west of the local office.

Called them and gave the location and time found. They said thanks and that I can keep it if I wished.

 

[bflynn]

You're handling that without gloves? Gosh, I hope it isn't one of those SDSD (slow dispersal / slow descent) devices I was reading about in Chem Monthly. You don't want to know what body part that guy lost.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Don't touch it without PPE. Same stuff as the chemtrails, but for dispersal over a limited area.

 

[jheyen]

So do they rely on the big sky theory that it won’t get chopped up by GA plane or sucked into a jet engine?

 

[ARFlyer]

So do they rely on the big sky theory that it won’t get chopped up by GA plane or sucked into a jet engine?

Basically. I went to an open house recently and was surprised to be told they are trained that pilots know to avoid the sites around launch times. I told them that isn’t taught nor do I know of anything that lists out all the weather balloon launch sites.

Simply put, they just check the area for any aircraft nearby and let the balloon go. The local office sits next to the ramp of the North Little Rock airport.

 

[denverpilot]

So do they rely on the big sky theory that it won’t get chopped up by GA plane or sucked into a jet engine?

Yes. Above a certain size you can also request airspace for them.

www.eoss.org flies piles of the bigger ones, legally....

... unlike the stupid credit card commercials and such, showing some doofus strapping a cell phone to one in their back yard, as if the phone wouldn’t just record a blur of crap spinning until it froze and died.

LOL

Anywhoo... yeah the radiosonde program uses small stuff and launches from known locations but not really charted or anybody too concerned about them. They’re really light.

 

[Zeldman]

So, did ya keep it.???

 

[RyanB]

So, maybe a dumb question, but what does it actually do? Collect some type of data?

 

[DaleB]

So, maybe a dumb question, but what does it actually do? Collect some type of data?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosonde
Generally sends back altitude, temperature, humidity, etc. from what I recall. Never seen one myself.

 

[azblackbird]

As a kid growing up on a huge cattle ranch I’d find a weather box at least two or three times a year while out feeding or checking cattle. Looks like they’ve shrunk quite a bit in size. Used to be about the size of an old radio. I’d take them to the local post office and they’d mail them back to the NWB.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosonde
Generally sends back altitude, temperature, humidity, etc. from what I recall. Never seen one myself.

And if it records position, winds aloft.

 

[flyingron]

Yep, my roommate and my girl friend had a summer job one year launching them and processing the results.

 

[ARFlyer]

So, did ya keep it.???

Yep! I called the NWS office and told them where and when it was found. They said I can keep it if I wanted to.

My guess is with the COVID situation they aren’t to worried about getting any of them back.

So it’s sitting on my bookshelf in my home office.