Question:
We have found a weather balloon and it's transmitter. We
were trying to find out where it came from and the distance it may
have traveled. Any information would be appreciated. There are
numbers on the unit that read, Vaisala RS92_AM D1233747. These are
the only identifying numbers on the unit. Thanks in advance, Bob
Replies:
The Vasala radiosonde that you found is used by a number of
organizations, including the National Weather Service (NWS) and the
Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurements program in
Oklahoma and Kansas.
Since you live in Washington state, it's likely that the radiosonde
was launched by a NWS station somewhere upwind
of you, either in Washington or Oregon most likely. These packages
and balloons can travel as much as 300 miles, although it's likely that
the launch site was within 100 miles of where you found the package.
Unfortunately, there's no easy way to determine the exact location
of launch from the serial number of the sonde, as they are bought in bulk
and distributed to the NWS offices. Each office probably keeps
records of the serial numbers that are used, so you could try calling
offices within 100 miles and ask them if they launched the package that
you have have.
You can find the locations of NWS offices at
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.php.
David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
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