this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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Should we be concerned about the loss of weather balloons? (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/spaceflight
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Can satellites replace weather balloons?

Yes and no.

On one hand, satellites today are capable of incredible observations that can rival weather balloons at times. And they also cover the globe constantly, which is important. That being said, satellites cannot completely replace balloon launches. Why? Because the radiosonde data those balloon launches give us basically acts as a verification metric for models in a way that satellites cannot. It also helps calibrate derived satellite data to ensure that what the satellite is seeing is recorded correctly.

But in general, satellites cannot yet replace weather balloons. They merely act to improve upon what weather balloons do.

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[–] Paragone -2 points 1 week ago

Flip the question, though:

Given the enforcing of the means of Kessler-Syndrome https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome ..

we're stuffing space as full-of-ammunition as we can ..

all it's going to take is for the US to declare war on somebody like the EU, & suddenly .. ALL the GPS targetting-sattelite-system gets turned into shrapnell!

& then .. we've got NO access to low Earth orbit, at-least..

So, weather-balloons are going to have to replace LEO sattelites, until that stops being the case..

( yes, I said the US declaring war on the EU: it's why Trump "needs" to possess both Canada & Greenland .. between Russia & that, they've got Europe in a pincer, & can DESTROY it, becoming the only "kings" left alive, ruling the West.

People think Trump's got no unconscious strategy, just because he's incapable of conscious strategy..

our corpses are going to be accumulating, as a result of that naiveness, within 3y, now: he has to completely-derail any 2028 election, right?

This is his ticket to doing-so. )

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