Story Falls from Sky, Lands on Newspaper

Wonderful coincidence! Good to hear there is still a newsroom out there!

Joshua McKerrow - The Capital A balloon being tested by a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drifted into the parking lot of The Capital last week, a day after it was launched from Columbia in Howard County. The balloon and its payload are being tested to use in a program that measures hurricane wind speed, wind direction and barometric pressure in an effort to improve hurricane forecasts.

Sources Say: Story falls from sky
www.hometownannapolis.com  |  09/25/09

Reporters sometimes talk about stories that fall into their laps.

This time, the story literally fell on The Capital.

A large white balloon, with plastic-encased electronic devices attached, floated down from the sky last week, landing just outside the newspaper’s lobby.

While some suspected it was a normal weather balloon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said the balloon’s payload is a prototype for new technology being tested to more accurately predict the track of hurricanes.

The launch was part of the Weather In-Situ Deployment Optimization Method, or WISDOM, program, though the balloon is not of the small, pyramid-shaped type the program usually uses, said Justyna Nicinska, WISDOM program manager.

The program’s balloons drift at a constant altitude and measure wind speed and direction, as well as barometric pressure, around a hurricane, said Nicinska and Chris Jones, a senior engineer with the contractor that launched the balloon.

“The balloon and payload that landed in your parking lot is a prototype for the 2009 version,” Jones said in an e-mail.

It was launched from Columbia in Howard County the night before, and apparently failed shortly afterward, landing on a house in the Annapolis area first, then drifting to The Capital later, Jones said. Researchers were able to track the balloon via a satellite link that transmitted the information to the base station and displayed its position on Google Earth, he said.

The WISDOM program’s goal is to improve hurricane-track predictions in the three- to seven-day period before landfall, Nicinska said. The balloons are typically launched several days before a storm makes landfall, she said.

This year, it has been more difficult to get the necessary data because of the small number of hurricanes, Nicinska said. But scientists said they hope they can move from the research stage to the operations stage in five or six years, she said.