"The article states that the balloons were launched day in, day out. What about the poor weather days where the wind is gusty and fast? Does the cell coverage on those days get lost?"
Huh? Balloons get launched at 1100 & 2300 UTC, pretty much regardless of what's going on at the release site. They even have balloons made with thicker material for release into thunderstorms or other hazardous conditions.
Anyway, now onto the article...I won't beat around the bush here. I think that this company's vision is a retarded idea. These balloons rarely last longer than 2hrs on the way up to ~100kft. They might take longer to fall due to the parachute (maybe 4-5hrs), but even then what are you going to do for cell coverage once your antenna is laying on the ground in some rancher's pasture and there's 6hrs before the next balloon goes up? That's not even considering the fact that the equipment could land be 150+ miles away from the launch site! Plus you'd have alot of explaining to do to your customers as to why their service is crappy when the winds are from the north or south and ok when they are from the west.
Oh well, that's my rant for now...in the meantime check out the upper air observing sites around this part of the globe.
Slashdot Mirror
"The article states that the balloons were launched day in, day out. What about the poor
weather days where the wind is gusty and fast? Does the cell coverage on those days get lost?"
Huh? Balloons get launched at 1100 & 2300 UTC, pretty much regardless of what's going on
at the release site. They even have balloons made with thicker material for release into thunderstorms
or other hazardous conditions.
Anyway, now onto the article...I won't beat around the bush here. I think
that this company's vision is a retarded idea. These balloons rarely last longer than
2hrs on the way up to ~100kft. They might take longer to fall due to the parachute
(maybe 4-5hrs), but even then what are you going to do for cell coverage once your antenna is
laying on the ground in some rancher's pasture and there's 6hrs before the next balloon goes
up? That's not even considering the fact that the equipment could land be 150+ miles away
from the launch site! Plus you'd have alot of explaining to do to your customers as to why their
service is crappy when the winds are from the north or south and ok when they are from the west.
Oh well, that's my rant for now...in the meantime check out the upper air observing
sites around this part of the globe.
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/upper/