Radiosonde launches in Santa Cruz

The OTREC project started launching radiosondes in Santa Cruz on August 21st and we will launch radiosondes twice a day, at 6am and 6pm, until the end of September. The launching is held at the Santa Cruz UCR campus, and will be performed mostly by graduate students.

        On August 20th, graduate students Zeyuan Hu (Harvard), Justin Whitaker (CSU), and I (Texas A&M), together with PI David Raymond (NMT), headed out to Santa Cruz to start the radiosonde launches. The first launch, led by David Raymond, started around 5:30 pm and ended around 8:30 pm. Why did it take so long? We needed to set up the portable radiosonde receiver (antenna) and software, inflate the balloon with helium and attach the radiosonde, launch and then wait until the balloon reached 18 km in altitude. During this time, the antenna received information about air temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction at different altitudes. This information will help OTREC to understand the mechanisms of atmospheric convection in the far Eastern Pacific.

Preparing the first radiosonde in Santa Cruz, from left to right: Zeyuan Hu, me, and PI David Raymond

        For a few days, Zeyuan and I were in charge of the radiosondes launches. We woke up at 5:30 am, headed out to the UCR campus, and launched the radiosonde around 6:30 am. Sometimes we experienced minor issues related to the iMet software or radiosonde that delayed the launch by a few minutes; however, we were able to launch all the radiosondes successfully.

Me, holding the first balloon to be launched

OTREC Team in Santa Cruz, from left to right: David Raymond, Zeyuan Hu, me,  and Justin Whitaker

The UCR has also an elementary school at this campus, and some of the students joined us to see the balloon going up – it was their favorite part! They were enthusiastic students that wanted to learn about our work and project. They understood that the balloon has a sensor that measures air temperature and winds at different altitudes, and the surface temperature is not the same as it is at 5 km or 10 km.   

Here I am, talking with the first two kids who came to us during the radiosonde launch; Justin Whitaker is on the right 

OTREC also aims to encourage these students to like science as much as we do. In fact, the OTREC team will speak with all the students and teachers early this week, and we will bring educational material to be distributed throughout the school.

Having a chat with elementary school students about OTREC and weather; in the back, PI David Raymond is smiling

 The radiosonde launches in Santa Cruz are underway and will continue until the end of September. Zeyuan Hu and I are in charge of 10 launches. After that, I will take a few days off (though I will probably be in charge of weather discussions) and then come back for more launches with my next partner, Justin Whitaker.