Weather Balloon explained in simple terms

 



Hey there,

This is a series of Tutorials dedicated to start a High altitude science exploration
which are eventually the cheapest baby foot steps to space exploration.

Today i will be introducing you to weather balloons and the science behind them in a most simple and clear grammar.

So basically a weather balloon is an inflatable latex made balloon that is filled with light gases(much more like birthday floating balloons on left) and these light gases will try to rise up much like smoke but as they enclosed in the balloon they will exert push the balloon instead thus lifting it.




Image courtesy from Google search

As you can see from the above picture, the balloon can also support some additional weight e.g(Photographs). This is the same on weather balloons as they can support up to 3 to 4 times their net weight.

This weight can be used to carry instruments like cameras, weather monitoring instruments, satelites etc)

Again from the above picture you can also see that the balloons are obstructed by the roof from the going and if this had to be in an open area the balloons would rise to a far higher altitude.

So as the balloon rises in the atmosphere a contracting force on the ballon surface(usually nkown as atmospheric pressure) will gradually diminish and this would cause the balloon to expand up to it's last stress point and eventually burst in high altitude.

The average bursting altiude is 25 KM(This region of the atmosphere is between the troposhere and stratosphere, Geography) and to get an visual imagination of it is out there check the selfie bellow taken by sam the dog(This is a puppet, No hard feeling 😁😁😁.)

Image courtesy from Google search.

After the balloon burst the payload(e.g images, camera) will come back to earth and in hurry due to gravity and a parachuting system(To be explained visually in the next series) is usually put in place to slow down the decent.

Through the ascent and the descent, the balloon is guided by the wind directions and thus flows where the winds dictate and will land land anywhere.
To recover it a GPS tracker is put in the payload and the payload is tracked over a phone, laptop or any Internet connect devices.


From this important data can be collected for uses in various such as agriculture, land plot and construction, military intelligence trackings just to name a few.


Thank you,

That's all for today......please post your comment your toughs below and forget to share this if you find it interesting.