Three more weather balloon launches from St. Edward’s

There have been three more launches from St. Edward’s recently.  The took place from just outside of Moody Theatre on September 1st, 4th, and 11th.  Once processed, data from the flights is hosted on St. Edward’s Institutional Repository at http://ir.stedwards.edu/ozone/.

weather-balloon-launch-9-1-2016-061September 1 launch (AT004):
Our weather balloon launches are funded by the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) and on this day Matthew Holderread from CAPCOG joined us.  Graduate students Kelsey Emmons and Chris Cormier along with undergraduate Gilbert Rivera all helped with the balloon launch.

September 4 launch (AT005):Launch Prep on September 1 (Flight AT004)
Launch prep during the September 4 launch.  Kelsey Emmons, Gilbert Rivera, and fellow undergraduate Andy Barnes all helped with the balloon launch.  During this phase the balloon train is assembled and they are filling the balloon about 15 minutes prior to launch.  The first five balloon launches thus far all traveled far to the west of Austin.  The winds are changing and our next flight (AT006) traveled to the east.

September 11 launch (AT006):
Chris Cormier and undergraduates Anais Matalet and Valeria Gonzalez helped with the balloon launch.  As soon as the balloon is let go everything happens quite quickly.

After this launch we were notified by Jack and Jane Willy of our ozonesonde instrument landing in their backyard.  A special thanks to both of them for letting us retrieve one of our instruments, which are partly re-usuable.

If the wind conditions are favorable, we will launch Monday, September 12 at ~1 pm just outside of Moody Theatre.

2 thoughts on “Three more weather balloon launches from St. Edward’s

  1. Can me and my son attend one of your balloon launches. I would like to learn about weather balloons and there max altitudes for an idea I’m working on. I would like to build a launch pad to carry a rocket up to save fuel so I can reach as high as possible on a hobbiest level 1 rocket certificate.

    • Hi Mike,
      Yes, you and your son are welcome to attend the launches. We don’t always have much advance notice and the season for launches is almost over. Will send you an email when the next one is set.
      Sincerely,
      Paul

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *