One of the backbones of the meteorological monitoring network is radiosondea weather station that was launched by balloon as high as about 110,000 feet before the balloon exploded and the instrument pack plummeted back to Earth, slowed down by a small parachute.
Such radio clocks are launched twice a day at about 1000 locations around the world.
Most US National Weather Service websites use radiosonde waves made by the Finnish company Vaisalla, and specifically the RS 41 unit shown below. The projection at the top has temperature and humidity sensors, a digital barometer on the inside, and wind generated by tracking the device’s movements.
One of the great joys of blogging is that I receive emails from many of you, with all sorts of observations and questions.
Today I received an email from Ian Cruickshank; when he was hiking in the woods in the Sooke Hills near Victoria, BC, guess what he found? An American radiosonde unit (see proof below).
He asked me where it was launched and I knew there was really only one possibility: the National Weather Service’s launch site at Quillayute Airport on the Olympic Peninsula. This is a map showing the radio launch location and where the unit ended up. About 55 miles.
I am often asked what one should do with one of these units if you find one. The old days NWS wanted you to return them….not anymore. Just throw it away…or better yet, keep it as a rare souvenir.
And consider the routes run by the Salem, Oregon radiosonde (see below) – mainly landing in the central Oregon Cascades. That seems like a good place to search by radiosonde.
If there is a really strong jet stream, the radio clocks can travel upwind for up to 200 miles during their typical two-hour flight.
Perhaps the most interesting radio recovery story happened a few years ago in my Atmospheric Science 101 class. I was just giving a lecture on radio substances and the next day a student came in with a lecture. Smile. I was dumbfounded. While he was playing basketball at a shared house on the College District, a radiosonde flew in.
Of course, I gave him extra credit.
