Modern weather forecasting may benefit from cutting-edge technology like radar and satellites, but it also builds on practices that date back centuries. Our quest to understand the atmosphere began in 1749 in Europe, where scientists used kites to carry thermometers to upper altitudes. By flying these kites high, they were able to gather valuable data on the upper air.

A few years later, in 1752, Benjamin Franklin famously flew a kite during a thunderstorm, to prove the electrical nature of lightning. This marked the beginning of a fascinating journey, leading to remarkable advancements in weather observation and atmospheric science.

In 1780s France, the invention of the hot air balloon and gas balloon quickly became a tool to study the atmosphere. Scientists boarded balloon baskets and ascended into the atmosphere with instruments like barometers and thermometers to study the atmosphere’s structure, chemistry, and behavior. While these manned flights offered valuable insights, they were perilous—extreme cold, lack of oxygen, and inadequate equipment led to serious injuries and even deaths. Despite the risks, these early ascents laid crucial groundwork for meteorological science.

Since the early days of ballooning, various measurements were taken during flights. However, one of the first documented uses of balloons specifically for weather measurement was by French meteorologist Léon Teisserenc de Bort. Beginning in 1896, he actively launched weather balloons, and his pioneering work led to the discovery of the tropopause and the stratosphere. This breakthrough later became the foundation for the widespread use of weather balloons in atmospheric research.

As the 19th century progressed, kites continued to be valuable tools for atmospheric observation. By the late 1800s, the United States Weather Bureau and other organizations had established kite observation stations, where kites lifted meteorological instruments into the sky. These “meteorographs” recorded pressure, temperature, and humidity. However, kites had their limitations. They could only reach altitudes of about 3 kilometers (9843 feet), and the data could not be analyzed until the kite was brought back to earth. Moreover, weather conditions had to be just right—not too calm, not too stormy—or the kite could break loose and cause potential harm below.

By the late 19th century, meteorographs had advanced enough to be carried by free-floating, unmanned balloons. These balloons soared to the stratosphere, reaching heights far beyond the capabilities of kites. Yet, this method had its own challenges. Once the balloon burst due to high internal pressure, the meteorograph would fall to the ground, where it might remain for days, weeks, or forever, depending on whether it was found.

The early 20th century saw a shift from kites to aircraft for atmospheric observations. Between 1925 and 1943, the Weather Bureau and the Army Air Corps operated a network of 30 aircraft stations across the United States. These planes carried meteorographs, but like kites, they could only fly in good weather, and data could not be analyzed until the plane returned to base. Despite reaching altitudes of up to 5 kilometers, the limitations of aircraft observations prompted scientists to seek more reliable methods.

The answer came in the form of weather balloons. By the 1930s, scientists had developed radio transmitters to suspend from weather balloons, leading to the creation of radiosondes—devices that transmitted real-time weather data back to earth.

World War II further accelerated the need for upper-air data, driving rapid advancements in radiosonde technology. By 1937, the Weather Bureau had established a network of radiosonde stations that continues to operate today. Radiosondes, tracked during flight to provide wind data, became known as “rawinsonde” observations, which contributed to weather forecasts and increased understanding of atmospheric processes. However, in the early days of rawinsonde stations, the valuable data they collected for weather forecasting was challenging to analyze. Without computer processing systems, this task was labor-intensive and time-consuming. The process relied heavily on manual work, making it less efficient.

A groundbreaking discovery in atmospheric science emerged in the 1950s, thanks to the pioneering efforts of James Van Allen. Known for his numerous weather balloon experiments, Van Allen also conducted critical research using “rockoons” (rockets launched from high-altitude balloons) to explore cosmic radiation and Earth’s upper atmosphere. These experiments provided the first hint of radiation belts surrounding Earth. In 1958, instruments designed by Van Allen on the Explorer 1 satellite confirmed the existence of these intense radiation belts, which were later named the Van Allen Belts. Formed by Earth’s magnetosphere, these belts protect our planet from harmful solar winds and storms.

Over the years, computing technology transformed many industries, including meteorology. By 1980, advancements in telemetry and computers had made rawinsonde observations nearly automated, reducing the need for manual work. Today, weather balloons remain an essential tool for meteorologists, with about 70,000 launches each year in North America alone. These floating weather stations carry advanced instruments—such as thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, cameras, and even telescopes—high into the atmosphere. In the U.S., 92 sites launch weather balloons twice daily as part of the Global Radiosonde Network, which includes 900 sites worldwide.

Nowadays, weather data comes from a variety of sources, including satellites, weather stations, balloons, aircraft, and radar systems. Weather forecasting starts with observing the current atmosphere. Sensors on land, sea, air, and in space collect billions of data points daily, giving meteorologists a complete view of the planet. In the U.S., 90% of this data comes from satellites, but other tools are equally important.  

On land, the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) at airports measures weather conditions, while Doppler radars track precipitation. At sea, buoys monitor sea temperature and wave heights, crucial for predicting storms like nor’easters and hurricanes. Additionally, commercial aircraft equipped with sensors gather weather data during flights. In the air, weather balloons launched daily across the country measure conditions beyond 15,000 feet.

Meteorologists gather all this information and, most of the time, can create accurate short- and long-term weather forecasts. From simple kites to sophisticated weather balloons, humanity’s quest to explore the atmosphere has paved the way for today’s advanced atmospheric research, which now extends to the edges of outer space.

Featured Image: Meteorologist Sid King, NOAA

Sitara Maruf
Sitara@ltaflightmagazine.com

DURING the solar eclipse, how did the LIVE video and images of the moon blocking the sun and the moon’s shadow hurtling across the earth reach NASA’s website? They came from balloons, outfitted with camera payloads, soaring near the edge of space. This was the first time that live streaming of an eclipse was accomplished with network coverage across a continent. One of the impressive things about NASA’s Eclipse Balloon Project was that, the 55 teams who accomplished this challenging task consisted of students from universities across the United States, and there were also ten high school teams. All teams were led by Dr. Angela Des Jardins director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium.

“It’s pretty amazing that with a low watt radio transmitter in a shoebox-size payload, we were able to stream down to antennas on the ground and then push it to the Internet. So, having that connection with the antenna on the ground and to receive the signal from the balloon– that’s a huge challenge that our teams had been practicing with for quite some time,” said Dr. Des Jardins in an interview with LTA-Flight Magazine. The teams had to ensure that the balloon’s equipment / payload did not exceed twelve pounds, which was also an FAA requirement.  “The overall project was very successful as we had expected. There were so many different things that came into play to do the live streaming, and teams had various degrees of results.”

Using Raspberry Pi and Arduino computers that allow sophisticated experiments at relatively low cost, balloons became a great accessible platform for hundreds of students who conducted high-altitude balloon flights and experiments from over 25 locations across the total eclipse path, from Oregon to South Carolina.

The idea to live stream video and images of the eclipse came to Dr. Des Jardins in 2013, who made it her mission. “I set out to convince NASA to support it and get the grant,” she said. “I grew it up in a very grassroots way, and the support that we had from NASA education and NASA Science Mission Directorate was hugely important in that.”

In preparation for the rare astronomical event, the Montana Space Grant Consortium has led students from across the US, since 2014, on a mission to capture live images from the edge of space, using high-altitude balloons.

Trevor Gahl, who started his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University (MSU) in 2017, joined the project as an undergraduate student. “It was the aspect of being able to apply computer and electrical engineering and the knowledge from basic sciences to contribute to the embedded systems in high-altitude ballooning was what interested me,” says Gahl.

In the four years that the students have been working on the project, they accomplished about twenty test flights. Gahl’s MSU team had 12 members and they worked on the hardware of the ground station. Their team was the focal point of a nationwide project leading up to the day of the eclipse. So Gahl’s biggest challenge was time management. “We would get e-mails and phone calls from teams across the country that were also using our systems. We had to support, assist, and troubleshoot any problems they had, and we also had to get our project to a stage at which it would operate because this was something new that we were doing–streaming live video from balloon cameras during an eclipse. And we were going to have teams along the entire eclipse path from Oregon to South Carolina that would be sending live video of the shadow of the moon passing over the earth.”

For more than a year, Gahl and his team worked on the implementation of the automatic track algorithm that would track the balloon throughout the duration of the flight.

Gahl and his team reached Rexburg, Idaho, on Saturday and set up their camp and equipment. On Sunday they tested everything and did a dry run. “We started at 5 o’clock in the morning on Monday to make sure everything was going to be ready to get our balloons into the air in time.”

Flight Director Berk Knighton had estimated the typical ascent rate at about 1,100 feet per minute, so each balloon would rise to 50,000 feet within an hour. The fact that the totality was only 2 ½ minutes long, meant only a 10-minute window for the launch, to allow the balloons to rise to the target altitude (60-80,000 feet) and not any higher, as that would have increased the risk of bursting.

To be in the correct place for the eclipse and to launch their balloons in the stratosphere, many teams found themselves in the middle of nowhere and had to make sure that they had good Internet connections. “That’s difficult because without a hard Internet connection we weren’t able to rely either on self-phone jet packs or hotspots, because we knew and anticipated that the cell phone networks would be overloaded,” says Dr. Des Jardins. “And even places where the teams thought they were going to have really good Internet, media folks showed up and stole their Internet connections, so to varying degrees people had good streaming video.”

Gahl and his team had some equipment problem during launch. “There was more turbulence than we expected and then things came unplugged. We were able to get a video and some still images but some of our other stuff didn’t quite function properly. We’re still looking into the hardware failures that we found,” he said, adding that many teams’ equipment worked well. “That was awesome to see that all of our hard work had been able to pay off for all these other students nationwide who got involved with it. They were able to get data,” he said.

To get all round images and videos, the payloads carried different imaging systems. The still image system used a DSLR Nikon camera and other ones were Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera whose tilt could be adjusted to look up or down. For the multiplexer video system, they had a series of eight cameras going around the perimeter of the payload. And these could remotely be pointed to cardinal directions like north, northeast, south, and so forth. It also had a chip inside the actual measurement unit that would detect what direction the payloads were facing, and it would choose the camera that was closest to that direction.

On eclipse day, as the moon made first contact with the sun, the temperature started to drop. And as the air cooled significantly during totality, some low-pressure balloons dropped from 80,000 to 50,000 feet, and rose up again after the sun came into view. The standard or sounding balloons did not experience much altitude change.

Besides getting live video and images of the eclipse, many teams conducted various experiments, and NASA and MSU presented early results of the Eclipse Ballooning Project on 11^th December at the American Geophysical Union’s conference. The difference in images of the Earth and atmosphere taken from high-altitude balloons on an eclipse day and on a non-eclipse day is striking. “On non-eclipse day, the horizon is pretty brightly lit, and you can see fantastic things on the ground but also get a really good feel for the layers of the atmosphere, which is really interesting. During the eclipse, it’s just amazing, because you can see the dark shadow coming in, and, then when the balloon is in the shadow, you can see a kind of 360-degree sunset effect. So, you have the dark area and then the bright area where the shadow is, and you can’t see anything on the ground because it’s dark. So, it’s like this gigantic black hole kind of effect,” said Des Jardins.

When taken from above 80,000 feet, the images also show some curvature of the Earth.

According to Dr. Des Jardins, balloons are an inexpensive and stable platform to get fantastic footage and images and also to do science experiments, depending on the type of experiments. “Obviously, from very expensive satellites, you can see something, but this is a way to get hands-on experience yourself, and for most people doing satellite or some other high-tech platform is completely out of reach,” she says.

Gahl adds: “The planes cannot get this high. The balloons go up to around 90,000 feet which is the lower stratosphere. And so, we get a much wider viewing angle or range that we can take pictures from.”

He cites another potential project at MSU that will use balloons and camera payloads to do imaging of thunder storms. “We’ll be able to fly above the clouds, and we can do a lot of that stuff that the planes can’t necessarily do. They can get up above clouds but not stay in one spot like a balloon can. You know a couple of weeks ago, we could have been able to image all the fires in Montana and see how they were progressing. So, it’s a very stable imaging system for a relatively low cost.”

Randy Larimer, deputy director of Montana Space Grant Consortium notes that it was incredibly rewarding to watch the students grow in technical skills, social skills, and business skills while working on the project. And though the challenge was daunting at times, the students succeeded in accomplishing the mission and in engaging the public during this awe-inspiring celestial event.

Click the link below to watch videos that were streamed live on eclipse day.

https://eclipse.stream.live/

Related articles:

https://ltaflightmagazine.com/msu-eclipse-ballooning/results/

https://ltaflightmagazine.com/balloons-eclipse/

The exhibit features several educational and interactive weather pods to educate visitors about the sun, wind, clouds, precipitation, and storms. With artifacts, interactive touchscreens, videos, and nearly 50 text and image panels, visitors can learn about the science and technology behind our understanding of the weather and in computer simulations, they can also launch their hot air balloons in the “Albuquerque Box” and watch them soar over the city.

“I think we’ve surprised a lot of people with the look, feel, and the depth of the exhibition,” said Museum Manager, Paul  Garver.  “The other thing that’s been surprising is just how much time people spend in here. The Weather Lab is also a place where they’ll learn about the technology of weather forecasting,” says Garver.

In addition to weather forecasting, visitors can change atmospheric elements in virtual simulation pods and experience how those changes impact weather patterns.

The unique design and artistic elements of each pod gives a feel for the weather element housed within. For example, when visitors enter the precipitation pod, the lighting and design creates an illusion of a rain curtain under a cloud.

“The Weather Lab also highlights two weather-related conditions that are important to Albuquerque – but for very different reasons – ‘The Box’ and fire weather,” said Garver, where visitors learn about seasonal fires and how widespread forest fires influence weather patterns.

The “Albuquerque Box” is a set of predictable wind currents that make Albuquerque an ideal place to hold the world’s largest ballooning event every year. At lower elevations in the Rio Grande Valley, where the city sits, winds move South. At higher altitude, winds move North. So, balloon pilots take off from Balloon Fiesta Park, drift into the valley, catch the opposite wind current and float back to land near the place they started.

Moreover, using computer simulations, visitors can also design their hot air balloons to launch into the Albuquerque Box. They can learn how the balloon’s design and weight respond to circulating winds, and they can launch their balloon on the projected flight path and watch it rise and float over the city.

“What you experience on the field is so enchanting, and the museum and the Weather Lab give visitors the chance to explore and participate in the joy that is hot air ballooning,” says Garver.

The Weather Lab is part of the Balloon Museum’s efforts to expand (STEM) science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and Mayor Richard Berry notes the possibilities for students. “This outstanding achievement is a new resource that adds to Albuquerque’s capacity to develop, support and attract STEM talent. It is another example of what makes Albuquerque such an innovative city,” said Mayor Berry.

Designed and built by University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, the Weather Lab cost $450,000. Most financial help came from state funds, the city, and from the International Balloon Museum Foundation.

The museum is a 61,000-square-foot high-bay building with a tensile fabric roof and a balloon-like feel and overlooks the 365-acre Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park and the launch field.

The world-class museum has many models and educational exhibits, representing the first balloon journeys in 1783 to the actual balloon gondolas and capsules used by pilots on their record-breaking flights.

Individuals and organizations involved in the conception, construction and completion of the Weather Lab, include Ideum, New Mexico Highlands University, University of New Mexico Fab Lab instructors and students, Design Group, Facility Build, General Contractor, Simone Seagle and the Balloon Museum Foundation and Board of Trustees.

Museum address: 9201 Balloon Museum NE, just west of Jefferson and north of Alameda.

Balloon Museum

In addition, some of the balloons will carry instruments to gather data about the effects of an eclipse on our atmosphere. Others will carry samples of bacteria as part of a NASA experiment. These space-based solar observatories and Earth-bound telescopes promise to give a well-rounded coverage of the major celestial event.

“We have spent the last three years researching and building the camera payloads and ground stations in preparation for eclipse day.” explains Angela Des Jardins, Director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium and leader of the Eclipse Ballooning Project.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks out the sun as it passes between the sun and Earth, casting its shadow on Earth. Though such an eclipse occurs once every 18 months, it is rare for the eclipse to take place in densely populated land regions of our planet, as most of them occur above water, given that three-fourths of Earth’s surface is water.

The total eclipse of the sun will grace and sweep across the continental United States for the first time since 1979, but it was in 1918 that a similar eclipse had caused a total, (temporary) blackout coast-to-coast. As the moon’s shadow races across the country at about 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) per hour, from Oregon to South Carolina, the totality will pass through 12 states, from Oregon to South Carolina in just one-and-half hours, in a 120 kilometers (75 miles) wide path.

The shadow will touch U.S. soil at 10:16 a.m. Pacific time near Oregon’s Depoe Bay and will leave the continent around 2:49 p.m. Eastern time, with Cape Island, South Carolina, as its final stop.

Fifty-five teams from across the country are taking part in the project. Each will launch one or more balloons from within the path of totality, which is a 70-mile-wide area stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. Depending on the wind predictions for August 21, teams may have to adjust their launch locations, because livestreaming works best when the balloons (soaring above 80,000 feet) are closest to the small radio dishes that receive the video signal.

The balloons are roughly eight feet tall when they are partially filled with helium at the launch sites. As the balloons rise through the atmosphere, they will expand as the atmospheric pressure decreases with altitude. They are designed to rise to 85,000 feet, but during test flights the balloons have reached altitudes exceeding 110,000 feet (33 kilometers). “From this edge of outer space, you can really see the curvature of Earth and the blackness of space,” says Des Jardins. “Our project will be the first to show the eclipse video from the space perspective from multiple locations along the path of totality, where the moon totally blocks the sun and it gets dark.”

Balloons will be launched 80 minutes prior to the total eclipse, as it will take that much time for them to rise to the target altitude before total darkness occurs. Shortly after totality, the balloons will pop because of the low atmospheric pressure, or the balloon’s payload will be detached using a remotely controlled mechanical system, and the payload will parachute to Earth. With the payload cut down, the balloon will rise rapidly and burst. The balloons are not reusable.

“Sending live video from high-altitude balloons is tricky though,” says Des Jardins, “because each balloon can lift only 12 pounds, the payloads get really cold potentially causing problems with electronics, the systems to control the video are complicated…I could go on and on.”

And though the exact path of the eclipse can be predicted and it’s possible to have timecodes for switching cameras, “sometimes you hit a violent crosswind,” says Dr. Justin Oelgoetz of Austin Peay State University (APSU) in Clarksville, Tennessee.  “so, things can get wild for a few minutes.” That’s why NASA’s kits are also secured by pieces of foam board (used for insulation in walls) and his team uses additional duct tape on it.

Even when the camera is stable, sub-zero temperatures and ice can freeze up the equipment or result in poor image quality. “Sometimes, we get ice around the edges of the image,” says Oelgoetz.

So, Des Jardins plans to have a main web page with the U.S. map and one main feed with thumbnails of other video feeds around it.

The Equipment Payload of the Balloon

What has enabled the project is the miniaturization of computers like Raspberry Pi camera board with cable. It costs $29.95 and weighs 3.4 grams. The primary payload of a balloon consists of a tracking system, a video system and a still-image system, hanging below by a string of nylon cord about 20 feet long. A lightweight modem in the tracking system communicates with a network of satellites, allowing researchers, air-traffic controllers, and others to see the location and altitude of all of the balloons in real-time. The video system has a ring of eight small video cameras hooked to a lightweight computer and radio transmitter. The teams can select which camera to transmit in order to have the most desired view. The still-image system has a single camera hooked to a lightweight computer and radio transmitter. Some of the balloons will carry additional equipment according to experiments that are being conducted.

Each team will use ground-based antennas (it looks similar to a residential satellite TV dish) to receive the video and photo transmission from its balloon. The antennas are connected to a computer, which has an Internet connection. Specially designed software immediately “pushes” the footage from the computer to the Web.  Each team will also retrieve the payload(s) once it parachutes back to Earth.

Besides NASA, several research and education entities will look at the data. NASA officials believe the 2017 eclipse will be the most viewed live video since the 2012 landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars.

From the eclipse and scientific observation, NASA hopes that we may increase our understanding related to the following questions:

How does our atmosphere react to the sharp shadow of the eclipse speeding across the continent at over 1,500 miles per hour? What does the exact surface of the sun look like? What happens to resilient bacteria when exposed to a Mars-like environment? How do we transmit live video with inexpensive equipment from space-like conditions and over long distances? What happens on the Internet when hundreds of millions of people are watching live streams from the same source at the same time?

The Eclipse Ballooning Project was initiated by Montana Space Grant Consortium at Montana State University in 2014 and is sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate and NASA’s Space Grant program, a national network that includes over 900 affiliates. Money for the project comes from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and each team’s local space grant consortia.

SAFETY WHILE WATCHING THE ECLIPSE: Please be safe and wear solar eclipse glasses, while viewing the eclipse. These are affordable and available. Without protective eyewear, you can only safely look at the eclipse during totality, which occurs for about two minutes. Protective eyewear should be worn while viewing the eclipse during all other times and places.

For more safety information: http://eclipse2017.nasa.gov.

NASA’s Live video feed: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-live-stream

The project was started by the federal Environmental Science Services Agency (ESSA) which later became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The balloon-borne ozonesonde helped NOAA develop knowledge and expertise that enabled them to learn that ozone was depleting and the ozone layer above Antarctica had been particularly impacted by pollution. In May 1985, scientists with the British Antarctic Survey announced that they had discovered a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. The largest ozone hole area recorded to date was on September 9, 2000, at 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million square kilometers).

Scientist Sam Oltmans’ first assignment was ozone research, when he started with ESSA in Boulder in 1969.

“At the time, we had very limited measurements of ozone in the atmosphere,” said Oltmans, a retired NOAA Global Monitoring Division scientist who continues to work with the agency. “We were just trying to get a basic understanding of what stratospheric ozone was like.  No one had the foggiest idea about stratospheric ozone depletion.”

Clues to the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole

When the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole galvanized the international scientific community in the 1980s, ozonesonde measurements taken by NOAA in Boulder and at the South Pole were essential for scientists to make sense of observations from satellites, which could gather ozone readings from across large areas.

The first instrument to measure ozone – the Dobson spectrophotometer – was a ground-based device that measures the total amount of ozone in a column of the atmosphere above it, but not how it is distributed.  Like the Dobson spectrophotometer, early satellites could not resolve the distribution of ozone in the atmosphere. But the ozonesonde does.

An ozonesonde takes continuous readings from the ground to as high as the balloon can float before it pops – at about 130,000 feet altitude – producing a high-resolution, vertical record of ozone readings. This level of detail – and NOAA’s lengthy South Pole ozone data record – was critical for identifying the lower stratosphere as the region where chlorine atoms from chlorofluorocarbons, cold temperatures around the poles, and sunlight combined to destroy the ozone layer.

“Without balloon measurements, diagnosing the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible,” said Chemical Sciences Division Director David Fahey, who co-chairs the scientific assessment panel for the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Today, scientists still use ozonesondes to validate and correct satellite data.

Ozonesondes are also widely used to study ground-level ozone pollution, which forms when sunlight bakes emissions from industrial and transportation sources.

NOAA’s ozonesonde now the world’s workhorse

NOAA’s Walter Komhyr, who built the first prototypes used in the initial research project, later patented a design that pumps air into a small sensor that measures ozone levels via an electrochemical reaction. Over time, the ECC ozonesonde became the standard instrument for investigating the protective stratospheric ozone layer as well as for measuring harmful ozone pollution close to the ground. Three different companies have been licensed to manufacture the ozonesonde. Close to 100,000 have been made so far.

The knowledge gained from the government’s early ozone studies and the lengthy data set that it produced is a good example of why fundamental scientific research is so important,” said  James Butler, director of NOAA’s Global Monitoring Division.

“High-quality, scientifically driven, long-term records from measurement systems like these allow us to identify and understand changes in the Earth system,” Butler said. “This is true whether you’re talking about ozone depletion, pollutant transport, or climate change.”

Adapted in part by Sitara Maruf
Source: NOAA

Who were the first test pilots in aviation? A sheep, a duck, and a rooster. On September 19, 1783, the animals took off in a balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers. The aircraft floated to 1,700 feet and, after an eight-minute journey, landed in the trees. Their flight proved that living beings could breathe above the ground and paved the way for human aviation. A model of their “flying machine”—as the builders described it— is on display at the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum (AAAIBM).

And although the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon in June 1783, a brilliant scientist named Pilâtre de Rozière and the nobleman Marquis d’Arlandes were the first humans to take a catastrophic risk and fly in a crude hot air balloon with a blazing open fire to heat the air inside the balloon. You will find an exhibit of their famous balloon Le Réveillon, made by the Montgolfier brothers.

The world-class Balloon Museum has many such models, exhibits, and artifacts representing the first balloon flights in 1783 to the balloon races and latest feats of the current century.

Located in the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park and overlooking the balloon launch field, the museum is a 61,000-square-foot high-bay building with a tensile fabric roof and a balloon-like feel. It is dedicated to the history, science, and art of ballooning and honoring the high-flying pioneers in lighter-than-air aviation.

Even the name of the museum is a tribute to Maxie Anderson and Ben Abruzzo, Albuquerque’s two ballooning pioneers who set many world records. In August 1978, Anderson, Abruzzo, and Larry Newman (also from Albuquerque) became the first aeronauts to achieve the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Their torturous journey of 3,100 miles from Maine, USA to Paris, France, lasted about six days. This was Anderson and Abruzzo’s second attempt despite their near-death experience of the Atlantic crossing only a year before. Neither their own previous ordeal nor the fact that several balloonists had failed and five had perished, deterred them from taking on the challenge again.

Jill Lane, director of the museum’s foundation, says it took over 20 years for the museum to develop into a reality and the initiative was taken by Maxie Anderson’s family. After several record-breaking feats, Anderson died in a ballooning accident in 1983. “The family felt like it needed to keep his legacy of his pioneering feats in

ballooning. They had a significant collection of his balloon-related things that they did not know where and how to showcase them. And, Albuquerque is the ballooning capital of the world, so they started working on the idea of a balloon museum in Albuquerque.”

Their Double Eagle II gondola used during the successful Atlantic crossing is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the Albuquerque balloon museum which opened on October 1, 2005, twenty-seven years after the Atlantic crossing, has its life-size replica. Dr. Marilee Schmit Nason, curator of collections said that she tried to get it on loan from the Smithsonian and they declined.

“But ours has a cutaway, and you can walk into it and sit in it and feel what is was like to be one of those three people in that space for all of those days going across the Atlantic Ocean,” says Nason.

The museum has 15,000 catalogued pieces and, Nason says, she is still processing the collection. “The museum collection comes from two sources — the Anderson Foundation that had artifacts related to Maxie Anderson’s epic balloon flights which is recent, and ballooning memorabilia, historical in nature, collected by balloonists and collectors Jacques Soukup, (and Kirk Thomas), which were housed in the South Dakota Museum that closed,” explained Nason, adding that the two collections complement each other and gives the museum a time depth.

Since it opened in 2005, the museum has had nearly one million visitors from New Mexico, other parts of the country, and the world. The exhibits combine historic artifacts with modern multi-media technology to educate visitors by explaining its history, putting it in the context of the human spirit and drive, and staying on top of what is happening now in lighter-than-air technology.

Paul Garver, director of the museum, says that for many visitors, it’s an eye-opening experience about the uses of balloons in adventure, scientific experiments, the arts, warfare, espionage, and the exploration of space.

“When we think of the early 20th century airships, we think of the demise of the airship, but there is a lot of indication that there is a new age of airship on the horizon and I think that’s very exciting.” says Garver. “That is just one example of how ballooning and lighter-than-air technology is not just the technology of the past or sports — it is still cutting-edge and has a bright future, not just here on planet earth but in space exploration as well.”

You will be astonished to learn about the exquisite interiors, the luxuries, and other details of the early 20th century airships or zeppelins. These airships used hydrogen or helium gas for lift and were propelled by gasoline engines. They were used to deliver mail, drop weapons, or to fly people and they even crossed the Atlantic in two days. The exhibit on “The Largest Flying Airships” sheds light on the era of commercial airships and how it came to an end.

Then there is the exhibit of Félix Tournachon (Nadar), a pioneer in aeronautics as well as in photography, whose combined interests led to mapping of cities. The “Advent of Aerial Photography” display enlightens the visitor about his leading efforts in ballooning and camera techniques to produce the first aerial photograph above Paris as early as 1858. Nadar’s Le Géant  was the most celebrated balloon of the nineteenth century. It was 196 feet tall, had a two-story gondola, a restroom, a darkroom, and a capacity to carry 49 people.

Soon after the invention of the balloon, military generals figured how to use “Balloons in War,” and this exhibit covers their use in five wars. A museum visitor said that he never knew about the use of balloons as weapons. The “Fugos” (balloon bombs) exhibit is a revelation in how the knowledge of atmospheric science and lighter-than-air technology was used by the Japanese, during World War II. Thousands of balloon bombs were launched from Japan to ride a jetstream across the Pacific Ocean and land in North America. The United States and Canada kept this a top secret, (mis)leading the Japanese to believe that their balloon operation had failed; as a result, the Japanese abandoned the operation.

“Ballooning covers every subject you can imagine. We have coins, tokens, and postage stamps from all over the world that depict different historic flights, even from countries that I’d never heard of. One can learn about the history, language, and culture through ballooning,” says Nason.

The era of balloon science was launched on the day the first balloon took off and continues to this day. In science and space research, the advantage of using balloons is that they can rise to the edge of space, unlike fixed-wing aircraft which need some air to provide lift and support engines.

A lot of the science and space research involving balloons also needed daring humans to fly to the edge of space, test instruments, and experience the effects of the dangerous near-space environment on human physiology. Some even lost their lives in their effort to contribute to our knowledge of space travel, astronomy, astrophysics, and human physiology at high altitudes.

The exhibit on ‘Flying Higher-Into the Stratosphere” depicts the courage of the intrepid aeronauts who rose to the stratosphere and jumped from that altitude as participants in experimental projects carried by the U.S. Office of Naval Research from 1956-1961.

Visitors have a look of disbelief when they reach the “World’s Highest Jumps” exhibit, which shows photos of Colonel Joe Kittinger jumping from 102,800 feet. In 1960, he was testing a partial pressure suit to be used by fighter pilots and future astronauts.

In 2012, Austria’s Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,100 feet as part of the Red Bull Stratos Project. The objective of the research?  What would happen to astronauts or space tourists if they had to eject at extremely high altitudes?  Kittinger had served as Baumgartner’s advisor and the museum also plays a film about such incredible statistics.

“The Balloon Museum is also the official home of the Ballooning Commission’s Hall of Fame which recognizes those who have made significant contribution to aerostation. Each year one living and one posthumous inductee are elected,” said Lane.   This year, New Mexican aeronaut and prolific record-setter Troy Bradley was inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 2015, Bradley flew across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Mexico with Russian pilot Leonid Tiukthtyaev in a helium balloon and set a distance record of 6,656 miles and duration record 160.6 hours. “For the flight, the museum served as their Command Center for seven days continuously,” said Nason. Bradley’s original capsule Two Eagles is on display at the museum.

For fans of experiential film viewing, the Tim Anderson 4-D Theater, which opened in September 2016, screens short 2-D and 4-D films.

“Even though it’s open we still have many things to do on the technical and content development side,” says Garver. Audiences’ viewing experience may include vibrating seats, bursts of air, flashes of lightning, and even snow showers along

with many other effects. “The videos we’ll show are flight, science, and nature-related, which will provide content that reflects and expands upon our exhibitions and programs. Like our first 3-D offering, ‘Aerobatic Challenge,’ some will be whimsical so you can just have fun. It’s an exciting and unique addition to the museum,” says Garver.

A dramatic and often misunderstood story in ballooning is about S.A. Andrée’s daring attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. A 2000-square-foot new exhibition Arctic Air: The Bold Flight of S.A. Andrée chronicles the unprecedented attempt in 1897. It gives an insight into the expedition that was well equipped and supported by that period’s innovative and state-of-the-art technology. “We tried to put it in the context of the overall human drive to explore, to discover, and to achieve; the story of Andrée and his expedition is fascinating, but there are also some lessons in there about why we are driven to do that,” says Garver.

Andrée’s balloon named Örnen (Eagle), also had a combination of balloon steering systems – sails and guide ropes that were intended to influence their direction and altitude.

In 2017, visitors will be able to learn from and enjoy a new exhibition The Weather Lab. This enclosed and permanent exhibit promises to be an immersive and interactive learning experience on various topics — the sun, wind, clouds, storms, and the Albuquerque “Box.” The exhibition will also focus on seasons, topography, pressure systems, and atmospheric levels.

“Our goal is to concentrate on themes such as exploration, discovery, achievement and inspire those in people who interact with our content. Ballooning and lighter-than-air technology symbolizes a lot of that directly,” says Garver.

According to museum officials, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta—one of the most popular events—held in October has led many people to believe that the balloon museum is open only during the nine days of the balloon festival.  “The balloon museum is open for the entire year,” says Lane. “Yes, during Fiesta, we have many more visitors as the festival draws nearly one million people. But the nice thing is Albuquerque’s weather allows flying for most part of the year and many balloon ride companies offer rides throughout the year.”

When the weather is ideal for flying,  it is hard to miss the hot air balloons in the Albuquerque skies; some can be spotted around Fiesta Park and the Balloon Museum.

 In few weeks, we will run a feature on the museum’s educational programs and community activities.

Twice a day, every day of the year, weather technicians release about six-foot round weather balloons from 900 locations worldwide. Weather balloons are made of latex or synthetic rubber (neoprene) and filled with hydrogen or helium—gases that are lighter than air. The neoprene envelope is about 0.051mm thick. An instrument called a radiosonde is attached to the balloon to measure pressure, temperature, and relative humidity as it climbs up into the atmosphere. The radiosonde is powered by a small battery.

After an hour of flight, the balloon reaches 100,000 feet (about 20 miles or 30 kilometers). This is the stratosphere— the second-last layer of the atmosphere before outer space. This layer holds 19% of the atmosphere’s gases but very little water vapor. In this region, the temperature increases with height. From the stratosphere, the infinite vastness of the universe is a breathtakingly beautiful panorama. Only few astronauts and aeronauts on scientific balloon missions have been able to observe this. The Earth appears as a curved brown and bluish-green expanse against a black outer space, and the sky transitions from a deep blue to absolute black.

As the balloon rises, it expands up to 20 feet in diameter. Its rubber envelope stretches to its limit and thins out to 0.0025 mm. Now, the balloon has reached a bursting altitude. When the balloon bursts, the radiosonde is sent plunging toward Earth, but it is quickly slowed to 22 miles per hour by a parachute which opens within seconds. Because of its slow descent, most of the time, the radiosonde lands safely and can also be reused.

Generally, the balloon flight lasts for two hours and can drift as far as 125 miles. During the ascent, the balloon and the instruments endure temperatures as cold as -139°F (-95°C), wind speeds of 200 mph, relative humidity from 0% to 100%, ice, rain, thunderstorms, and extremely low air pressure— only a few thousandths of what is found on the Earth’s surface!

Throughout its near-space journey, a transmitter on the radiosonde beams atmospheric information back to tracking equipment on the ground every one to two seconds. By tracking the position of the radiosonde, meteorologists can also calculate wind speed and wind direction.

To collect weather data at night, a lightstick is attached to the balloon, which enables meteorologists to track the balloon until the tracking equipment locks onto the radio signal.

Nowadays, weather balloons are the primary source of data to plot out weather conditions for days in advance. A century ago, forecasters could not predict the weather beyond a few hours as their only source of information was weather measurements taken on the ground. High-altitude weather conditions can be different from those at sea level. So when a squadron of weather balloons picks this data from the upper atmosphere they alert us many days in advance about thunderstorms, tornadoes, snow blizzards, flash floods, and a lot of other critical information that helps save lives and prepare for a weather emergency.

Computer forecast models which use weather balloon data are used by all forecasters worldwide, from National Weather Service meteorologists to your local TV weatherman!

Notable Contributions to the Science of Meteorology

The science of meteorology was born with the invention of the mercury barometer and dates back to the mid-17th century. The great Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli introduced and demonstrated the mercury barometer to the public. He explained that the fluctuations in the mercury column of a barometer corresponded to the changes in atmospheric pressure. In honor of Torricelli, the torr came to be known as a unit of pressure equal to one millimeter of mercury. Toricelli who died at the age of 39, in 1647, was also the first to claim that we live at the bottom of the ocean of air, where atmospheric density is at its maximum; as we climb higher, the air becomes thinner resulting in low atmospheric density. Therefore, with increasing altitude, oxygen levels in our blood decrease with the decrease in oxygen.

Specifically, the credit for early weather observations, from a balloon, goes to Dr. John Jeffries. His first balloon flight was a frightening and disappointing experience, but also historic and triumphant in a different way! Born in 1744, Dr. Jeffries, a Harvard-educated physician also had a great deal of interest in learning about the atmosphere. While practicing in England, he paid an astronomical 700 pounds to French balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard to build a balloon for the crossing of the English Channel. Jeffries’ condition was that he should be allowed on the journey with his scientific instruments to take some weather measurements.

On 7th January 1785, the duo took off on a daunting balloon crossing of the English Channel. They launched from the English side to fly across to France, but the

balloon threatened to crash in the English Channel. To make the balloon lighter and to keep it afloat, Jeffries was compelled to throw away his instruments. Still the balloon refused to ascend, and the aeronauts were forced to dump everything, including their clothes. Eventually, their balloon caught a rising warm air current, which landed them in Calais in France, as naked as the trees, writes Jeffries; thankful to be alive and for achieving the triumphant crossing of the dangerous English Channel.

Jeffries is credited with being among America’s first weather observers and his birthday 5th February is celebrated as National Weatherperson’s Day in his honor.

As a matter of fact, brilliant research by some chemists and physicists of the 17th and 18th centuries yielded significant scientific breakthroughs that contributed to the understanding of many unknown aspects of the atmosphere.

Only few examples are mentioned here. Robert Boyle and Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles formulated the laws of gas pressure, temperature, and density; Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s developed calculus; Joseph Black came up with the doctrine of latent heat (i.e., heat release by condensation or freezing) and John Dalton developed the law of partial pressures of mixed gases. These important insights led to more progress in science and technology and eventually to the development of the modern weather balloon and instruments that help to produce useful weather forecasts.

References:
1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service. “Weather Balloons”
(8 October 2012) weather.gov <http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=kidscorner_weatherballoons>

2. Tristin Hopper “How Weather Balloons Work” 9 May 2011.
HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/meteorological-instruments/weather-balloon.htm> 11 January 2016

3. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. “weather forecasting”, accessed February 02, 2016, http://www.britannica.com/science/weather-forecasting.

4. Nick Heil, The Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 51.

5. L.T.C. Rolt, The Balloonists: The History of the First Aeronauts (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2006),82-88

6. Lennart Ege, Balloons and Airships (New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1974), 103-105

7. Fulgence Marion: Wonderful Balloon Ascents (1870)