This morning checking fences I see a white box under a cedar tree.


I get closer and see a string going up into the tree and an orange parachute in the tree.






After looking it over and reading the instructions on the box I pull the parachute down and find the remnants of the balloon. The string was 50 ft long but really tangled in places so must have started out much longer.



Anyway, pretty cool find this morning I thought I'd share. Preparing to return it to NOAA via included envelope.

Cool.

Very cool

Found one when I was a kid at our farm in Emory.

I was expecting this!

Made in Mexico , is it theirs or ours?

Back in the early '80s a buddy and I were out scouting some woods in northern Nac County and ran across one. Pretty neat.

The LMS6 Radiosonde is the latest radiosonde model developed by Lockheed Martin, designed to meet the most demanding operational requirements. Utilizing current GPS receivers and sophisticated temperature and humidity sensing technology and processing, the LMS6 Radiosonde provides optimized meteorological, wind, and position data as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. Precision factory calibration of the radiosonde sensors eliminates the time and expense of preflight baseline checks, and lithium battery power simplifies radiosonde preparation and guarantees extended product shelf life. ETSI-compliant radiosonde transmitters, combined with digital error correction techniques, ensure high data availability throughout the flight.

LMS6 Radiosondes are available in a variety of configurations to meet wide-ranging user requirements:

403 or 1680 MHz (nominal) transmitter frequency
Variable transmitter output power (for sites flying multiple radiosondes simultaneously)
High resolution (no temperature or humidity sensors) for precision wind and position data only, for use with jimspheres or stabilized balloons
ECC-Type Ozonesonde compatible design
Spare channel access, for coupling to external analog sensors
Multithermistor, for reference-grade temperature measurements

What to do if you find a radiosonde
(also called a weather balloon)?
Radiosondes are sophisticated instruments attached to weather balloons used around the world to obtain
temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction from the surface to altitudes of
approximately 30 kilometers. The specially-designed balloon is filled with hydrogen or helium to enable the
radiosonde to obtain accurate profiles into the upper atmosphere. The final bursting altitude of the balloon is
determined by the size of the balloon; during the ascent the balloon expands as it rises due to lower pressure.
Once the balloon bursts the flight package falls back to the earth, in this case where you found the package.
Depending on the winds in the atmosphere the radiosonde can travel over 250 kilometers from the site where
the user launched the balloon.
The radiosonde transmits data throughout the flight to a receiving system located near the launch site. This
system, typically called a sounding system, processes and converts the data into meteorological messages
circulated worldwide on the global weather network.
Radiosondes are deployed by our customers around the world such as the meteorological services, scientific
agencies, and research organizations. In many cases our customers include on the radiosonde instructions how
to dispose or return the radiosonde.

The Lockheed Martin radiosonde you have found poses no dangers to you. Please follow the directions for the
return of the radiosonde if such instructions are included on the radiosonde. You are free to keep the
radiosonde; please note our radiosondes have small lithium battery cells inside. If you do not want to keep the
radiosonde and there are no instructions for returning the instrument, please dispose of the package in
accordance with your local guidelines/regulations for electrical waste disposal. Any remaining pieces of the
balloon can be disposed with household waste

You know all that or pull an Oxner on us.

Since the late 1930s, the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) has taken upper air observations with radiosondes. The radiosonde is a small, expendable instrument package (weighs 250 to 500 grams) that is suspended below a large balloon inflated with hydrogen or helium gas. As the radiosonde rises at about 300 meters/minute (about 1,000 feet/minute), sensors on the radiosonde transmit pressure, temperature, relative humidity and GPS position data each second. These sensors are linked to a battery powered, 300 milliwatt or less radio transmitter that sends the sensor measurements to a sensitive ground tracking antenna on a radio frequency typically ranging from 1676 to 1682 MHz or around 403 MHz. Wind speed and direction aloft are also obtained by tracking the position of the radiosonde in flight using GPS or a radio direction finding antenna. Observations where winds aloft are also obtained from radiosondes are called "rawinsonde" observations. The radio signals received by the tracking antenna are converted to meteorological values and from these data significant levels are selected by a computer, put into a special code form, and then transmitted to data users. High vertical resolution flight data, among other data, are also archived and sent to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.

A typical NWS "weather balloon" sounding can last in excess of two hours. In that time, the radiosonde can ascend to an altitude exceeding 35 km (about 115,000 feet) and drift more than 300 km (about 180 miles) from the release point. The radiosonde is suspended 25 to 35 meters (~80 to 115 feet) below the balloon to minimize contamination of the temperature measurements from heat shedding off the balloon skin. During the flight, the radiosonde is exposed to temperatures as cold as -90ºC (-130ºF) and an air pressure less than 1 percent of what is found on the Earth's surface. If the radiosonde enters a strong jet stream it can travel at speeds exceeding 400 km/hr (250 mph).

When released, the balloon is about 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) in diameter and gradually expands in size as it rises owing to the decrease in air pressure. When the balloon reaches a diameter of 6 to 8 meters (20 to 25 feet) in diameter, it bursts. A small, orange colored parachute slows the descent of the radiosonde, minimizing the danger to lives and property. At the present time, data are not collected while the radiosonde descends.

Although all the data from the flight are used, data from the surface to the 400 hPa pressure level (about 7 km or 23,000 feet) are considered minimally acceptable for NWS operations. Thus, a flight may be deemed a failure and a second radiosonde is released if the balloon bursts before reaching the 400 hPa pressure level or if more than 6 minutes of pressure and/or temperature data between the surface and 400 hPa are missing.

Worldwide, there are over 800 upper-air observation stations and through international agreements data are exchanged between countries. Most upper air stations are located in the Northern Hemisphere and all observations are usually taken at the same time each day (up to an hour before 00:00 and/or 12:00 UTC), 365 days a year. When severe weather is expected additional soundings may be taken at a select number of stations. NWS takes observations at 92 stations; 69 in the conterminous United States, 13 in Alaska, 9 in the Pacific, and 1 in Puerto Rico. NWS also supports the operation of 10 other stations in the Caribbean.

That is a very cool find!

All I ever find are old birthday balloons usually tangled up in my trees....PITA to get down to throw away.

You’re is much cooler

nice

I would put it for sale on the THF Trading Post..........

Found one in the parking lot behind the dam at LOP several years ago. Sent it back and got a small reward.

I have found a couple. Sent them back and once got a letter back that told what it did.

WTF are these "grams" and "Kilometers"??? I thought this was the USA???

So it's already mailed back. I'll put the parachute and balloon remnants in my collection. I seem to catch all kinds of mylar and helium balloons. Even found a funeral balloon one time, didn't know that was a deal. Yep, and several tangled up high in the trees I never claim.

Anyway here's the other pictures and info for anyone interested. It looks like a smiley face on the time. Looks like it launched from Ft Worth this morning at 12:02 smiley face time.


The orange parachute is still in pretty good shape.

The package ID.

The return mailer was a plastic type self sealing bag wrapped up in the handle of the sensor package.




If I hear back from it I'll post an update.

Very neat find!

They launched it today in FTW and it already crash landed in Van Zandt County? I thought they had a longer flight time than that.

I think that says 00Z - which would be yesterday at 6:00PM IRC. 00Z 11/16 = 6:00 PM CST 11/15

NWS uses Zulu time on most of its stuff.

Probably 10-12 years ago I took a “bomb threat” call at an attorney’s office in NE Dallas. Upon arrival I saw pretty much the same thing the OP posted. It was caught on the buildings porch and the box was hanging about chest high. The attorney that owned the place got a good laugh, the cleaning crew not so much