STRATOSPHERE BALLOON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22108, 14 May 1935, Page 11

STRATOSPHERE BALLOON

EXPERIMENTS AT DARWIN TESTING WIND VELOCITIES By sending a hydrogen-filled balloon high into the stratosphere above Darwin recently, Mr. W. A. Dwyer, Commonwealth meteorologist at Darwin, made observations of exceptional scientific importance. Through a telescope Mr. Dwyer watched the balloon ascend 81,000 ft., or about 15 miles and a-half above the earth, before it burst. It was in sight for three hours and a-quarter. Jt was the highest altitude ever recorded in Australia, and one of the highest altitudes ever recorded in the world. The balloon went 30,000 ft. above the stratosphere base. These balloons are sent up'daily by Mr. Dwyer and his assistant, Mr. Hutchison, to obtain wind velocities at different altitudes for air mail forecasts. When the balloon entered the stratosphere Mr. Dwyer found that the wind there was blowing at more than 100 miles an hour. At 81,000 ft. the pilot balloon, which weighed about an ounce, and was about two feet in diameter, appeared as a faint white speck. Once in the stratosphere the speed of the wind increased rapidly until, at the moment the balloon burst, it was travelling at a speed computed at more than 100 miles an hour. The balloon, which was inflated, with hydrogen, had a rate of ascent in still air of 133 metres a niinute.