The Ultimate Guide To Launching Your Weather Balloon Successfully First Time Round

Now, launching a weather balloon sounds straighta large heavy steel tank and a 125 cubic ft helium
forward enough, blow up, attach payload, release!canister will stand about 6 ft tall and weigh a
But this isn't a party balloon we're talking about,hefty 100 pounds. So you'll need a car or jeep for
no, for a weather balloon, whether its atransportation, especially if you're going to track
meteorological balloon or camera balloon, there areyour payload down when it lands.
a few things you'll need to consider when planningBatteries.
your launch:There's nothing more frustrating than loosing your
Size Does Matterpayload, especially if you couldn't afford the
Don't be tempted to buy a smaller balloon andequipment to stream the images/data directly
just pump in more helium! Your balloon is going upback. If you're relying on GPS tracking to recover
up up, to around 90'000 feet off the ground. Atyour data manually you had better spare a
high altitude balloons expand due to the pressurethought for the poor electronics your hurling into
outside decreasing while the pressure insidethe freezing environment of the upper
remains the same. As your balloon rises throughstratosphere! At 90'000 ft up the temperature is
the atmosphere it will expand as the air thins. Aabout -50 degrees C and your average battery
weather balloon 5 ft wide at launch will reach awill cease to function. However you have a better
width of about 20 ft at peak altitude. It needs thechance of maintaining connection with your
extra inflation room for this. Your balloon willbeloved balloon kits if you use lithium batteries
eventually pop, hopefully at its maximum altitude.NOT lithium ion batteries. No no, different kettle
Its not gonna reach this if you over fill it. So getof fish. You can buy energiser lithium batteries and
the right sized balloon to take the weight of yourthey last 8 times longer than standard ones but
radiosonde or weather balloon camera - of coursemore importantly they can withstand the cold
if your balloons maximum altitude is far abovetemperatures of the upper stratosphere!
what you need it for you have some wiggleThe Actual Launch
room & can experiment with inflation, but at yourNow, on the day you need to carefully consider
own risk!launch area, and weather conditions: Don't launch
Each cubic ft of helium will lift 28g of weight,near a military installation! They might think they're
however, the radiosonde needs to be lighter thanunder attack, and while the idea of men in
this for the weather balloon to rise. The balloon willcamouflage running around on red alert may
rise faster the smaller the weight. The differencesound funny to you, I bet the idea of them
between the radiosonde weight and the liftableshooting down your weather balloon isn't! Don't
weight is called the 'free lift'. You can calculate theinterfere with military air space and they won't
balloons accent rate easily as it works out atinterfere with you. Next you need to make sure
300ft per minute for every pound of 'free weight'.your launch area is away from obstructions such
The faster your balloon ascends the less chanceas trees and telephone polls, preferably not in a
of something going wrong - a blow out,built up area for retrieval purposes.
equipment batteries failing, the payload landingFor obvious reasons no wind is preferable, but
further down wind and being harder to recover.look up the wind direction before you launch so
Transportation.you know which direction it'll land in. If your
Now a weather balloon is not gonna weigh muchlaunching a camera balloon you'll need a sunny day
right? Stick it in your pocket almost (if you havefor decent exposure on your aerial photography.
really big pockets). But a helium canister does! It's