Why meteorologists still rely on weather balloons
Stephanie Orellana / Illinois Public Media
From doppler radar to satellites to aircraft, scientists use different types of tools to observe the weather. But one of the most important tools meteorologists use to this day are weather balloons.
The National Weather Service launches weather balloons twice a day nationwide and they fly up over 100,000 feet. For context, most commercial jets fly at 30,000 feet.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences professors Stephen Nesbitt and a graduate research assistant at the Department of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Science and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Eddie Wolff.
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