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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
If NWS is saving a million a year by getting rid of an employee, then it isn't a poorly paying job.
Oh well... just add it to the list, I guess:
So, ummm... why is anybody upset about this, again?
If automation makes this part of forecasting more efficient and less expensive then why are we bitching.
Launching balloons is probably the least technical part of the job. So while I feel for these low skill employees at NWS, I feel it's better to save there where it will not effect our forecast accuracy.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
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 ?