Balloon Science by Dan
@balloonscidan.bsky.social
Flight summary, a GHOST balloon from 1969. Typical of the program, 172 days, 3+ orbits of earth.
September 11, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Flight summary, a GHOST balloon from 1969. Typical of the program, 172 days, 3+ orbits of earth.
FYI, I've imported all the old posts into Bluesky, though they all have today's posting date :-) Happy ballooning! - Dan
January 25, 2025 at 12:07 AM
FYI, I've imported all the old posts into Bluesky, though they all have today's posting date :-) Happy ballooning! - Dan
Reposted by Balloon Science by Dan
Project MOGUL used “trains” of high-altitude balloons more than 650 feet long, radar reflectors (to assist in ground tracking), and acoustic sensors to detect distant blasts. Numerous tests of the apparatus were conducted in New Mexico in 1946 and 1947. It was one of these—Flight 4—that failed.
July 8, 2023 at 8:04 PM
Project MOGUL used “trains” of high-altitude balloons more than 650 feet long, radar reflectors (to assist in ground tracking), and acoustic sensors to detect distant blasts. Numerous tests of the apparatus were conducted in New Mexico in 1946 and 1947. It was one of these—Flight 4—that failed.
Reposted by Balloon Science by Dan
NASA participating in collaborative effort to use high-altitude #balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling #wildfires
Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology
www.nasa.gov/centers-and-...
Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology
www.nasa.gov/centers-and-...
NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate - NASA
NASA is participating in a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland
www.nasa.gov
November 16, 2024 at 2:58 AM
NASA participating in collaborative effort to use high-altitude #balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling #wildfires
Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology
www.nasa.gov/centers-and-...
Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology
www.nasa.gov/centers-and-...
Filling an early Loon "Ibis" balloon using a crane at Winnemucca, NV airport. Dec 9, 2014
November 25, 2024 at 4:12 AM
Filling an early Loon "Ibis" balloon using a crane at Winnemucca, NV airport. Dec 9, 2014
A bad day on the ground. This unfilled, loose balloon has gotten caught in a gust of wind and opened like a spinnaker sail. Note the people running away on the left. The folded balloon was probably neatly on the red strip. Training at Timmins, ON, Canadian Space Agency 2014
January 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
A bad day on the ground. This unfilled, loose balloon has gotten caught in a gust of wind and opened like a spinnaker sail. Note the people running away on the left. The folded balloon was probably neatly on the red strip. Training at Timmins, ON, Canadian Space Agency 2014
A dark little lenticular cloud rides the crest of Alcatraz Island's gravity wave today. The wind coming into the bay from the west (left) is bounced up by hitting the prison island. It's highest is downwind where some vapor condenses and then evaporates as it bounces back down.
January 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
A dark little lenticular cloud rides the crest of Alcatraz Island's gravity wave today. The wind coming into the bay from the west (left) is bounced up by hitting the prison island. It's highest is downwind where some vapor condenses and then evaporates as it bounces back down.
January 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Historic balloon design code from 1978 can now be run again! the programs I found were for a CDC mainframe supercomputer in FORTRAN-63 language, and I am stunned to find that there is one CDC-6500 mainframe left, and YOU CAN LOG INTO IT ONLINE and run code! @LivingComputers
January 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Historic balloon design code from 1978 can now be run again! the programs I found were for a CDC mainframe supercomputer in FORTRAN-63 language, and I am stunned to find that there is one CDC-6500 mainframe left, and YOU CAN LOG INTO IT ONLINE and run code! @LivingComputers
Some info on the AU ballooning situation from the Australian operator of theballoon tracking site:
x.com/vk5qi/status/1… Sondehub.org
x.com/vk5qi/status/1… Sondehub.org
SondeHub Tracker
Live tracking of radiosonde flights. Data via SondeHub v2. Includes weather overlay, predictions, and access to historic radiosonde flights on sondehub.
Sondehub.org
January 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Some info on the AU ballooning situation from the Australian operator of theballoon tracking site:
x.com/vk5qi/status/1… Sondehub.org
x.com/vk5qi/status/1… Sondehub.org
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
HYSPLIT is a public tool that has been dear to me since 2005. I’ve always been amazed that it is free to access forecast of wherever the wind will blow. Every balloon project uses this extensively, from amateurs to Google:
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes…
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes…
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
HYSPLIT is a public tool that has been dear to me since 2005. I’ve always been amazed that it is free to access forecast of wherever the wind will blow. Every balloon project uses this extensively, from amateurs to Google:
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes…
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes…
At Google's Project Loon we were told that U2s occasionally checked out our balloons, and one time they sent us a pic like this over Lake Tahoe :-). I hope I can find my copy to post sometime!
x.com/bizjetsofwar/s…
x.com/bizjetsofwar/s…
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
At Google's Project Loon we were told that U2s occasionally checked out our balloons, and one time they sent us a pic like this over Lake Tahoe :-). I hope I can find my copy to post sometime!
x.com/bizjetsofwar/s…
x.com/bizjetsofwar/s…
The two amateur pico balloons are cruising unharmed through Montana and Arizona skies! It looks like the military has finally chilled out :-) #BalloonShotDown #balloongate #weatherballoons
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
The two amateur pico balloons are cruising unharmed through Montana and Arizona skies! It looks like the military has finally chilled out :-) #BalloonShotDown #balloongate #weatherballoons
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Alaska airspace was just penetrated by the next amateur balloon. What will happen? The rainbow lines are where it may drift in the future.
Track it live (if it lives on) here:#balloonshotdown #balloongate #weatherballoons
amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz…
Track it live (if it lives on) here:#balloonshotdown #balloongate #weatherballoons
amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz…
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Alaska airspace was just penetrated by the next amateur balloon. What will happen? The rainbow lines are where it may drift in the future.
Track it live (if it lives on) here:#balloonshotdown #balloongate #weatherballoons
amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz…
Track it live (if it lives on) here:#balloonshotdown #balloongate #weatherballoons
amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz…
The next two pico balloons that might enter North America. This guess is based on weather forecasts and the variable longevity of the balloons. Being solar-powered, the northern one won't transmit when it's in the northern arctic night. #picoballoons
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
The next two pico balloons that might enter North America. This guess is based on weather forecasts and the variable longevity of the balloons. Being solar-powered, the northern one won't transmit when it's in the northern arctic night. #picoballoons
Great to haveown Mark @vk5qi on the stream tonight, and old friend. Got to talk about the underpinnings of the data path from balloon-to-map and balloon regs. @xssfox and he run SH together. Find #picoballoons and others on
amateur.sondehub.org sondehub.org
amateur.sondehub.org sondehub.org
SondeHub Tracker
Live tracking of radiosonde flights. Data via SondeHub v2. Includes weather overlay, predictions, and access to historic radiosonde flights on sondehub.
sondehub.org
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Great to haveown Mark @vk5qi on the stream tonight, and old friend. Got to talk about the underpinnings of the data path from balloon-to-map and balloon regs. @xssfox and he run SH together. Find #picoballoons and others on
amateur.sondehub.org sondehub.org
amateur.sondehub.org sondehub.org
Thanks, everyone for watching the Pico Balloon stream. If you're looking for the international balloon regulations, ICAO Annex 2, Rules of the Air, Appendix 5, Unmanned Free Balloons, just DM me and I can show you how to get them.
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Thanks, everyone for watching the Pico Balloon stream. If you're looking for the international balloon regulations, ICAO Annex 2, Rules of the Air, Appendix 5, Unmanned Free Balloons, just DM me and I can show you how to get them.
Livestream Thursday: Where the small balloons came from, who made them, how amateurs knew before, and how they are built. 20 more of these are on their way. 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 0200 UTC#BalloonShotDown #balloongate
Twitch.tv/balloonscidan bit.ly/balloonscivide…
Twitch.tv/balloonscidan bit.ly/balloonscivide…
Stratospheric Balloon Science
I will be producing educational content relating to high altitude balloons, in regards to their technical design, engineering, and the scientific challenges in making them work.
Are these interesting to you? Please consider donating to help me be able to share more balloon science with the world :-): https://www.patreon.com/balloonscience
I don't expect to have a particular schedule/frequency of these videos, though I sometimes do make a few in a row.
About me: I'm Dan Bowen, a stratospheric balloon science/engineering expert, and I want to share my knowledge with you. It's always fascinated me (biased much? lol), I'd like to show you some tidbits that you might like too. I'll be getting back to making balloons some time, and your support of this will get us there faster! If you need my help on a balloon project, I'm available at http://www.stratosphericballoon.consulting
Please subscribe, and share this with your friends :-)
bit.ly
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Livestream Thursday: Where the small balloons came from, who made them, how amateurs knew before, and how they are built. 20 more of these are on their way. 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 0200 UTC#BalloonShotDown #balloongate
Twitch.tv/balloonscidan bit.ly/balloonscivide…
Twitch.tv/balloonscidan bit.ly/balloonscivide…
Little hand-made balloon adventurers are drifting round and round the Earth... #BalloonShotDown
January 24, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Little hand-made balloon adventurers are drifting round and round the Earth... #BalloonShotDown
99 red balloons go by... #balloongate
January 24, 2025 at 11:57 PM
99 red balloons go by... #balloongate
If you'd like to know what an amateur pico balloon is, this article describes the cylindrical balloons, as long as a small car, which float around 35,000 to 40,000 feet altitude, generally coming in to north america on the jet stream.
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc_san_d…
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc_san_d…
Six Times Around the World: UC San Diego Researchers Send a Balloon Around the Globe
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, just above commercial air traffic, a small, hydrogen-filled balloon is reporting on its whereabouts to researchers in a UC San Diego lab who are listening intently. The balloon—called a super pressure balloon—was launched by a group of UC San Diego students and researchers about 100 days ago from campus and is on its sixth lap around the globe.
today.ucsd.edu
January 24, 2025 at 11:57 PM
If you'd like to know what an amateur pico balloon is, this article describes the cylindrical balloons, as long as a small car, which float around 35,000 to 40,000 feet altitude, generally coming in to north america on the jet stream.
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc_san_d…
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc_san_d…
Amateur pico balloonists - please, please delay launching your floating balloons for a while, maybe a month. It looks like some of the things the US Air Force shot down may have been amateur pico balloons. Let's not add to the tensions that the existing picos may yet make.
January 24, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Amateur pico balloonists - please, please delay launching your floating balloons for a while, maybe a month. It looks like some of the things the US Air Force shot down may have been amateur pico balloons. Let's not add to the tensions that the existing picos may yet make.