MarkGeldmeier's Blog

Okay, I'm not actually on the cover...but it's as close as I'll probably ever get!!

What is BAMS? It's the "Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society", a professional weather journal that is published monthly and sent to all AMS (American Meteorological Society) members.

The November issue has a picture of a large balloon being launched by two scientists in the middle of a field, with the title, "NOAA's Smart Balloons Keep Up with the Weather". The scientist on the left is Dr. Businger. He is one of two professors that I worked with while in Hawaii. The article describes how these "smart balloons" were used in several atmospheric chemistry experiments. I was lucky enough to participate in one of these experiments.

It was called "ACE-1" and was held near Tasmania, Australia. About 50 researchers, along with two ships and one plane, gathered for a month-long study. I was assigned two duties; 1) forecasting weather during the experiment, and 2) riding on the C-130 aircraft while monitoring the "smart" balloons that had been launched from a nearby ship. The balloons were outfitted with GPS, weather instruments, and a transmitter. Unlike traditional ballons, these were equipped with a self-adjusting mechanism to allow them to stay at a constant altitude. The idea was that the balloon would travel along and identify an "airmass". The airplane was then used to find the balloon (my job) and sample the air over several days to see how it changed with time. So, I would predict where the balloon should be...listen for the balloon's transmission...and then give coordinate changes to the pilot -- occasionally this actually worked as planned! Once we found the balloon, we'd fly circles around it. My favorite was flying just 300 feet above the ocean surface!!

If you've read this far and you're still curious! The article can be accessed online...

http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-toc&iss
n=1520-0477&volume=87&issue=11

There's a picture of the C-130 aircraft (Fig. 5), and that's my map of the balloon and flight tracks shown in Fig. 6.

What do you think?
-mark