Pix: A National Weather Service weather balloon, right, sits ready for launch in the Upper Air Inflation Building at the National Weather Service, Thursday, April 27, 2006 in Sterling, Va.
A 6-foot helium balloon, not for an advertisement display, but to carry weather instruments more than 19 miles into the sky is no new practice. It is a part of a little-known six-decade-old effort in predicting where storms will strike. But, a recent innovative technology may soon turn it obsolete!
It is a $20 million network of high-tech sensors, installed on some U.S. passenger planes! This method will not only be improving weather forecasts dramatically, but also warn pilots flying into dangerous ice storms or turbulence. This technology can also track hijacked flights.
It is while planes are flying, the new sensors measure weather conditions every few seconds. Forecasters, in early tests with NASA and the National Weather Service, detected tornadic conditions, predicted heavy storms, temperatures and fog more accurately.
