It's cool to be able to tell kids the journey their balloon will take and why when it floats away. Ruth Kimble who sets off the balloons for the national weather service to give you the info.
GREENSBORO, NC -- A balloon floats because it is either filled with a gas lighter than air, contains hot air, or it is filled with air that is the same density which can make it float for a little. But what happens after that?
Camryn's mom sent 2 Wants To Know Camryn's Kids Want To Know question: "What happens to a balloon that flies away in the sky?"
We spoke to Ruth Kimble who is a Upper Air Data Collector to help us answer this question. Her job is to work with weather balloons to collect different information for the National Weather Service.
"Well what happens to it is once I release it will go pretty far up into the atmosphere generally 70,000 to 100,000 feet, and once it gets to that level it will generally burst," said Kimble.
But every time you send up a balloon it does not do the same thing explained Kimble,
"Every time you send up a balloon it is varied. they go straight up on a clear day and end up landing two miles from where you released it, or we can have a breezy day and it can go as far as the east coast from here."
She also explained how winds on a breezy day can range from 40 to 50 miles per hour to all the way up to 180 miles per hour!
So when she sends up these weather balloons what are they collecting?
"Every time I send up a balloon I am collecting humidity, temperatures, wind directions, speed, GPS locations, where it is travelling, any type of atmospheric conditions that are going on," explained Kimble.
They also are collecting information when a storm is approaching, like the temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed.
Every time you send up a balloon it is varied then go straight up on a clear day and end up landing 2 miles from where you released it, or we can have a breezy day and it can go as far as the east coast from here. " I know that one particular balloon that we released landed right at the NC state university in Raleigh North Carolina, which is where the national weather service happens to be."
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