{"id":1148976,"date":"2023-02-13T13:10:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T18:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-many-weather-balloons-are-out-there-hundreds-it-turns-out\/1148976\/"},"modified":"2023-02-13T13:10:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T18:10:06","slug":"how-many-weather-balloons-are-out-there-hundreds-it-turns-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-many-weather-balloons-are-out-there-hundreds-it-turns-out\/1148976\/","title":{"rendered":"How many weather balloons are out there? Hundreds, it turns out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the recent shootdowns of “high-altitude objects,” there’s heightened awareness about what’s flying in U.S. airspace, especially weather balloons.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the skies are crowded.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Significant portion of Chinese balloon payload recovered, US official says<\/a><\/p>\n

How many weather balloons are there?<\/h2>\n

On any given day, nearly 1800 weather balloons are launched across the world, including 92 here in the U.S. and U.S. territories, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

Each flight lasts around two hours, during which a balloon drifts up to 125 miles and can reach an altitude of 100,000 feet.<\/p>\n

MORE: Amid mystery, White House reassures Americans: ‘No indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity’<\/a><\/p>\n

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How are weather balloons useful?<\/h2>\n

According to the NWS<\/a>, weather balloons are a key tool in forecasting.<\/p>\n

Each weather balloon has a device about the size of a shoebox attached to it called a radiosonde. The radiosonde measures pressure, temperature and relative humidity during its flight.<\/p>\n

The radiosonde sends data down to monitoring stations every one to two seconds, which also allows researchers to track wind speed and the balloon’s location.<\/p>\n

\"PHOTO:
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MORE: Biden faces political headwinds as US shoots objects out of sky<\/a><\/p>\n

Who tracks weather balloons?<\/h2>\n

The radiosonde allows the researchers operating the weather balloon to track it. Regulations from the FAA<\/a> require the balloon’s operator to record the position every two hours.<\/p>\n

Operators are also required to “provide traffic advisories to all affected aircraft … specifying the balloon’s known or estimated position, direction of movement, and altitude.”<\/p>\n

ABC News aviation analyst and veteran airline captain John Nance said a weather balloon might show up on a radar, but because it doesn’t contain a lot of metal, it is harder for the radar to spot.<\/p>\n

“Something slow moving that has very little metal in it will pop up on a regular radar as just a little noise,” Nance said. “In other words you might see it on the sweep and you might not see it for a couple other sweeps and then another sweep [the weather balloon] might pop up again.”<\/p>\n

Are weather balloons dangerous for planes?<\/h2>\n

Weather balloons do pass through the 31,000 \u2013 41,000 commercial airplane cruising altitude range, but are not expected to hover at that range, according to Nance.<\/p>\n

“If it’s up there at 60,000 feet or above, there’s really no worry about it conflicting with air traffic unless it starts coming down,” Nance said.<\/p>\n

The object shot down Sunday over Lake Huron was said to be floating around 20,000 feet.<\/p>\n

“That is definitely right in the middle of air traffic,” Nance said. “You do not want something like that hanging around.”<\/p>\n

What happens to a weather balloon?<\/h2>\n

After about two hours, most weather balloons burst, according to the NWS. The weather balloon can expand to 20 feet in diameter when it reaches bursting altitude.<\/p>\n

The radiosonde has a parachute, allowing it to fall back to Earth safely. Each radiosonde also has a mailing bag and instructions on how to return it.<\/p>\n

According to the NWS, about 15,000 radiosondes get returned each year out of 75,000 sent out. The government fixes and reuses returned radiosondes, which saves money.<\/p>\n

How many weather balloons are out there? Hundreds, it turns out<\/em><\/a> originally appeared on <\/em>abcnews.go.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

From:AOL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the recent shootdowns of “high-altitude objects,” there’s heightened awareness about what’s flying in U.S. airspace, especially weather balloons. As it turns out, the skies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}