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Robot-Launched Weather Balloons in Alaska Hasten Demise of Remote Stations (sciencemag.org)
The National Weather Service is choosing automated launchers over human employees to deploy weather balloons in Alaska. From a report: Last Thursday, just before 3 p.m., things began stirring inside the truck-size box that sat among melting piles of snow at the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska. Inside, software ran checks on instruments to measure atmospheric temperature, humidity, and pressure; a tray slid into place; and a nozzle began filling a large balloon with gas. Finally, the roof of the box yawned open and a weather balloon took off into the sunny afternoon, instruments dangling. The entire launch was triggered with the touch of a button, 5 kilometers away at an office of the National Weather Service (NWS).
The flight was smooth, just one of hundreds of twice-daily balloon launches around the world that radio back crucial data for weather forecasts. But most of those balloons are launched by people; the robotic launchers, which are rolling out across Alaska, are proving to be controversial. NWS says the autolaunchers will save money and free up staff to work on more pressing matters. But representatives of the employee union question their reliability, and say they will hasten the end of Alaska's remote weather offices, where forecasting duties and hours have already been slashed. "The autolauncher is just another nail in their coffin," says Kimberly Vaughan, a union steward in Juneau.
Once deployed across the state, the $1.2 million machines, built by Finnish company Vaisala, will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS, Susan Buchanan, an NWS spokesperson says.
The flight was smooth, just one of hundreds of twice-daily balloon launches around the world that radio back crucial data for weather forecasts. But most of those balloons are launched by people; the robotic launchers, which are rolling out across Alaska, are proving to be controversial. NWS says the autolaunchers will save money and free up staff to work on more pressing matters. But representatives of the employee union question their reliability, and say they will hasten the end of Alaska's remote weather offices, where forecasting duties and hours have already been slashed. "The autolauncher is just another nail in their coffin," says Kimberly Vaughan, a union steward in Juneau.
Once deployed across the state, the $1.2 million machines, built by Finnish company Vaisala, will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS, Susan Buchanan, an NWS spokesperson says.
will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS
Okay, I see that this is in Alaska. But a million dollars a year for one FTE? No wonder the union is squawking.
Unions: "We demand that these people get to keep their boring-ass, poorly paying jobs in remote, cold huts instead of allowing them to move to better paying jobs in warm warehouses putting together robot balloon containers!"
The entire launch was triggered with the touch of a button, 5 kilometers away at an office of the National Weather Service (NWS).
Dang, 5km away!! Tell me more about these robot computer thingies!
I'm sure these workers, who were in stable employment working in the great outdoors, will adapt just fine to stuffing amazon boxes on a zero-hour contract in a windowless warehouse, sleeping in their cars, and watching their new employer desperately trying to robot away their job. I mean, its only a couple of decades of trying to keep in front of the boot of automation and then they get to die anyway so no biggie right?
Anyway, they can console themselves by thinking about how good all this progress will be for their children, once they get a better job so they afford to have them of course.
[end of sarcasm]
How will society survive the robot automation of weather balloon launching.
Weather balloon launching is the keystone to western civilization. I see us collapsing into the dark ages now this important career path has been stolen by robots.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Oh well... just add it to the list, I guess:
So, ummm... why is anybody upset about this, again?
They are on tethers. Do you think they just let them freely float on the winds? Most would land in the ocean then.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Do they have a system to automatically release swamp gas too?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I've had to do that job among many others while in Antarctica. And the launches were much worse than in Alaska (where I've also been): insane winds (250+ km/h) or insane temperatures (-80C) . And it doesn't take '8 hours a day of forecaster's time' to launch a balloon, but about 15 minutes, then 2 hours to remotely collect data (while you work on something else) and a few minutes to send the result if you need to setup a manual internet connection. Anyway, just to say that automated launchers have existed for the last 30 years but they've never been reliable, maybe they've finally improved...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
But who chases the bear off the roof to let the balloon release?
Have gnu, will travel.
I dont know what kind of weather balloons you are thinking of, however they are NOT normally on tethers.
That is kind of the point, one of their major functions is to measure wind direction, strength, and temperature a LOT higher than any tether will get them.
"free up staff to work on more pressing matters"
Like finding a new job.