Ever wonder what that strange looking little building is beside the National Weather Service facility? You know, the one with the domed roof resembling a mini planetarium. It is an Upper Air Observing Station. Every day, 7 days a week 365 days a year at 92 sites in North America, at the same time- weather balloons are launched at 0000 and 1200 Z and across the whole planet.
Balloons inflated with hydrogen or helium carry a GPS equipment device called a Radiosonde. It measures the pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed and direction and sends the "soundings" information to the host NWS computer. The program allows for a time synched upper atmospheric "snapshot" across the entire globe as soundings are typically launched at the same time. Balloons can climb up to 100,000 feet.
These worldwide soundings are then ingested into the various global forecast models as a main source of information to produce forecasts for meteorologists and various other users. Soundings are also used extensively as a real-time data source, as the information can be plotted on various diagrams providing valuable information to meteorologists.
Saturday, a NWS representative spoke to a Shelby County Aviation Association group on obtaining weather data during a FAASTeam meeting at the Shelby County Airport. Times and methods for obtaining forecast data and how aviation data can be located on their website was discussed. The NWS facility, co-located at the Shelby County airport, allowed the attendees an opportunity to observe a weather balloon launch at their Upper Air building.
Following the NWS, Bill Castlen, a FAASTeam representative and Master CFI spoke about differences and advantages of using Stormscope, Strike Finder, XM and radar in weather avoidance.
SCAA cooked hamburgers for everyone who attended the meeting. -B Meyer, FMI: NWS