Since the weather pattern is not conducive to producing supercells and tornadoes, we targeted some much weaker convection in southwestern Nebraska and northeastern Colorado today. More ordinary convection is not the target of VORTEX2, but any scientific data on thunderstorms will go a long way into better understanding the dynamics in and around them. Several of the sounding teams launched balloons early in the afternoon to get a good look at the temperature, moisture, and wind profiles of the troposphere. Below are some photos of our balloon preparations near our target storm.
Ground station to measure 2 meter temperature, humidity and pressure to make sure the radiosonde is close to registering similar data. The radiosonde is placed in the smaller white instrument just off the ground called an aspirator while this test is occuring.
Adam French (NCSU) and Chris Golubeski (NCAR) tie the radiosonde to their balloon.
Casey Letkewicz (NCSU) and Jen Standrige (NCAR) fill their balloon in preparation for a launch under the anvil of the target storm.
Adam French (NCSU) and Chris Golubeski (NCAR) tie the radiosonde to their balloon.
Tell Casey to be careful holding balloons like that. I popped a weather balloon on my head my first week on the Ronald H. Brown for VOCALS.
ReplyDeleteAre you guys having a contest for who can get a balloon to the highest altitude?