Embedded Files
Where to find us!
Who are we?
Who are we?
Sounding Club is dedicated to providing students with hands-on experience in launching weather balloons. We meet for scheduled and inclement weather launches, but we also offer opportunites to meet professionals within the field of meteorological instrumentation. Every sounding launch presents its own challenges, and we work together to make the most out of every radiosonde that we send up. All of our launches take place on the 6th floor roof of Jordan Hall.
Our data is shared with the Raleigh NWS office, NC State Climate Office, and professors in the atmospheric science department at NCSU.
See ya on the roof!
What is a sounding?
Sounding launches are conducted to make real time observations of the vertical profile of the atmosphere. We use radiosondes manufactured by Windsond, which are very small computers inside a styrofoam cup. The smaller weight and size of Windsond radiosondes allow us to use 20 gram helium balloons to send them up into the atmosphere. Soundings provide us with information about the temperature, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed/direction, and altitude as the sonde ascends. The data we collect gets plotted onto a Skew-T chart, which helps us visualize what all that atmospheric info means for us back on the ground.
Recent Launches
Recent Launches
Scheduled Launch - 4/12/25 - 1945 Z (3:45 pm EST)
Click image for full report!
HSLC Launch - 3/5/25 - 1319 Z (8:19 am EST)
Click image for full report!
Thunderstorm Launch - 9/24/24 - 2150 Z (5:50 pm EST)
Click image for full report!
Fair Weather Training Launch - 9/10/24 - 2245 Z (6:45 pm EST)
Click image for full report!
Club Activity!
Club Activity!
Trip to the NC State Climate Office Lake Wheeler observation site -- thank you Sean!
Meeting with Paige Brocidiacono, former CEO of WindBorne Systems
Hurricane Helene
Winter Weather
Analyzing the incoming data
Supercell
Page updated
Report abuse