Windborne Global Sounding Balloon Updates and Flight Plans the 2024 Tropical Season

WindBorne Systems has developed a novel balloon-based observation system, enabling constellations of balloons to be flown throughout the troposphere for extended periods of time. Each balloon, known as a Global Sounding Balloon (GSB), can fly for weeks at a time while being remotely directed to ascend and descend from a few hundred meters above the earth surface to the lower stratosphere, collecting up to 50 vertical profiles of pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction per flight. The GSB platform continues to evolve and the upcoming version of the GSB planned for early 2024 will fly for longer periods and collect approximately 20% more vertical profiles while being 30% lighter and smaller than prior versions.

During the 2022 Atlantic tropical cyclone season, WindBorne flew 85 GSBs in the tropical Atlantic, collecting both widespread in-situ environmental observations and some targeted observations within tropical waves and cyclones. These observations, along with GSB observations collected in the Arctic at the same time, have been retrospectively assimilated into the NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) and provided a reduction in average tropical cyclone forecast track error during the 2022 season. Since 2022, WindBorne operations have been evolving from operating GSB flight launch sites during limited field campaigns to operating permanent launch sites that remain active throughout the year. During early 2024, a permanent launch site will be set up in Cabo Verde and GSBs will be launched year round, with varying cadences depending on weather scenarios. During the 2024 tropical season, plans are to launch 40 GSBs per month from Cabo Verde and to consistently provide up to 30 soundings per day in the tropical Atlantic with many in the main development region (MDR).

During this presentation, the latest GSB technology, along with plans for flights during the 2024 season will be presented. Additionally, future plans for operations in other tropical basins including the Pacific, and plans beyond 2024 will be discussed.