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High-Flying Balloons Begin Tracking Emerging Hurricanes

September 01, 2006

BOULDER-In a unique collaboration, U.S. and French researchers are launching large, specialized balloons into the stratosphere to drop nearly 300 instrument packages over wide swaths of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The packages, designed by scientists and technicians at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will gather detailed data over the next month from critical regions of the atmosphere where some of the most dangerous U.S. hurricanes develop.

The first launch of a balloon with its gondola and instrument package-which are together known as a driftsonde-took place at Zinder, Niger, on August 28. Up to seven more driftsondes will be released from Zinder through late September, coinciding with the peak period for hurricane formation over the tropical Atlantic.

The eastern tropical Atlantic is out of range for U.S. hurricane-hunter aircraft, and forecasters have little skill at predicting which of the systems there will develop into hurricanes. Data from the driftsondes should help better characterize the conditions that either foster or suppress hurricane formation. Although scientists have tested driftsondes over the last few years, this is the first time they have used them in weather research and prediction.

After being launched from Niger, each balloon will drift from Africa toward the Caribbean at heights of around 65,000-70,000 feet, where light easterly winds prevail. Twice per day, each gondola will release an instrument known as a dropsonde that falls by parachute, sensing the weather conditions during its 20-minute descent and radioing data back to the gondola and then, by satellite, to the researchers. Scientists will control the process from an operations center in Paris. If a promising weather system develops, they can signal the gondola to release additional dropsondes as often as once per hour.



Monitoring the seeds of hurricanes