Every Saturday at 1:00 PM Central (18:00 UTC), the National Weather Service launches a weather balloon from the UAH SWIRLL building in Huntsville, Alabama. This balloon's payload studies the ozone from the ground up to approximately 100,000 feet or more, depending on the size of the balloon being used. The data collected is transmitted on a UHF frequency and recorded for further analysis by NOAA after decoding. The payload also includes a GPS beacon, which we utilize to track and locate it. We offer a small reward for returning the payload, but many remain unfound or inaccessible for various reasons. Interestingly, they have landed in diverse locations, making recoveries sometimes quite fascinating! To track the balloons live, you can create a free account on the home page under the designated tab. Rest assured, your information will not be shared.

• Please note that as of March 2018, flights have been rescheduled to once per month due to funding cuts.

Here are some pictures and flight paths of past flights. As you will see sometimes the predictions are not right but they do give us a general direction where they will go. Flight predictions are provided by Amateur Radio Altitude Ballooning. To see what a NOAA Ozonesonde payload looks like click here.