Mark Garrett from Englewood Amateur Radio Society (EARS) shares some exciting news updates regarding the Pico Weather Balloon project in collaboration with SKY Academy.
The N4EAR Pico balloon just finished its second trip around the world. The team at Englewood Sky Academy and the Englewood Amateur Radio Club deserve a lot of credit for pulling this off. Right now, the balloon’s cruising just off the coast of Maine at 145 MPH. If it steers clear of storms, it’s set up for yet another lap, riding along the shifting jet stream. On its last lap, the thing actually hit 200 MPH.
It’s flying pretty far north this time, so sunlight is scarce—don’t expect as many location updates, but plenty of receiving stations are picking it up this morning. The way things look, N4EAR-1 could wrap up its second circumnavigation sometime late Tuesday or Wednesday, once it passes the -82 degree longitude line. It really depends on what kind of upper-level winds it finds—those winds could push it down Mexico’s east coast or keep it moving north along the Gulf.
We’ll just have to wait and see where the balloon goes next.
Kenneth Blackshaw jumped in to comment, saying, “Oh my, and the winds at 42,000 feet— We might actually make a hard right over Newfoundland and end up taking the same path over North Africa we did on our first two orbits! This is more exciting than we ever expected!”
Kenneth shared two exciting links that allow all of us to follow the story:
Stay tuned. There’s more to come from this adventure, created by our very own hometown Englewood adventurers.
For more information about EARS, click here.
