22:
The photo above shows a view of the Detroit skyline on the morning of October 20, 2009. Low on the horizon is a cloud of black smoke from an industrial fire which started in a paving-grade asphalt yard located in the city of River Rouge. Visible for miles, the smoke was a health threat to nearby residents.
For information on air quality the state of Michigan has numerous sites for monitoring particulate matter. There are several sites located in the city of Detroit, including a site right next to the River Rouge industrial complex.
06:
[quicktime width="520" height="360"]http://weather2250.com/wp-content/uploads/balloon_video_blog.mov[/quicktime]
I like the fact that weather balloons are still used today to gather data about atmospheric conditions. There is something poetic about the marriage of high and low technology. I have attended several weather balloon launches, mainly in Michigan, and most recently in Oregon. It is now too dark to photograph the launches in Michigan because the weather balloons are released here at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. I was happy to be in the West where they are launch at 4:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (I attended a 4:00 p.m. launch.)
Weather balloons are launched twice a day from more than 800 sites around the world. The launch times in each location are based on the time zone’s location in relation to the Greenwich clock. In this way, the balloons are launched at the same time, twice per day, throughout the world. Attached to the weather balloon is a radiosonde, a small box containing instruments that measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction. As the balloon ascends, weather data is transmitted to the ground station from various heights in the atmosphere. The balloon eventually travels to the edge of the atmosphere where it bursts and the raidosonde parachutes back to earth.
It is interesting to think about weather balloons being launched simultaneously around the world. This is collaboration! Meteorologists are able to get a snapshot of the atmosphere all around the world because people have agreed upon a set time to release weather balloons and are willing to share their data. Imagine what else we could accomplish with this type of world collaboration.
rss feed