Much to the delight of UW Cloud Punchers Mission Control Team, the GPS on the weather balloon that it released early Friday morning at the FortWhite Centre sent out a message at
7:40 am Saturday morning, April 25th. The high altitude weather balloon indicated that it had landed southeast of Anola and was still operational. The closest road to the landing site brought the balloon chasers to the property of a very friendly couple, Grant and Janet Warren.They gave them advice on how to find their way to the landing site to retrieve our instrument payload. They even offered the use of their canoes but in the end the four students and one professor chose to hike toward the landing site with the Warren’s dog Dixon at their side.
UWinnipeg students locate payload near Anola
The weather balloon landed within 14 km of the predicted landing site and was recovered by the UW Cloud Punchers at about 12:30 pm after a tough trek through swamp, marsh, bulrushes and willows. The team was glad they were equipped with rubber boots, hip waders and unflagging determination to get across the terrain. When found in dense bush, the instrument payload was in perfect condition. The data, including a wonderful high-def video, are intact and will be revealed at the Science Rendezvous event, open to the public, on Saturday, May 9th from 11am- 3pm at the Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex.
So, while it is true that the balloon was temporarily gone with the wind, in the end UWinnipeg Science prevailed!
