This is a log of all the radiosondes I have tracked to landing within a 20 mile radius of central Harris County. The green (✔) represent recoveries, red (✖) are unrecoverable, and orange (?) I have not attempted to recover.
Locally the most common source of radiosondes are the NWS Atlanta (Peachtree City) and NWS Birmingham offices, both of whom use the Graw DFM-17. NWS Atlanta radiosondes primarily land in the late spring, summer and early fall. NWS Birmingham radiosondes land in fall, winter, and spring when the jet stream dips into the southern United States.
2022 saw the continuation of the NWS transition from the Radiosonde Replacement System to the Manual Radiosonde Observation System (see my blog post about this). Locally, NWS Atlanta started the transition to the Graw DFM-17 radiosonde in January. Prior to that they had been using the Lockheed-Martin LMS-6 radiosonde.
This transition made tracking radiosondes a whole lot easier (old way vs new way).
Recovery #2
Type: Lockheed-Martin Sippican LMS6 Serial: 30B3 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 18 October 2021 00:00Z Recovery Date: 5 January 2022 Recovery Location Cataula GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.638990° -84.863740° Balloon Weight: N/A
This is another one I tracked manually from the Garden’s Overlook in FDR State Park. Oddly enough it landed just 1.2 miles from my home! This one took awhile to locate because the landing location was outside of the estimated landing zone. After several drone flights, and after all the leaves had fallen, I finally located it suspended from a tree. Using a 30-foot pole I was successful in recovering the radiosonde but not the parachute or balloon.
Recovery #3
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 20050128 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 23 December 2021 12:00Z Recovery Date: 9 January 2022 Recovery Location: Smiths Station AL Recovery Coordinates: 32.556600° -85.059900° Balloon Weight: 309 grams
I started my search for this one six hours after landing. My initial attempts to locate it with a drone failed (the camera on the drone has a hard time picking up the orange parachute in bright sunlight). On a whim I tried the radio and found the radiosonde was still transmitting its position. Armed with an accurate location I was able to find it stuck in a tree. I returned a couple weeks later and after another drone flight to verify it was still there I was able to pull it down with a 30-foot pole.
Recovery #4
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 20052241 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 18 January 2022 12:00Z Recovery Date: 18 January 2022 Recovery Location: Pine Mountain GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.853490° -84.877729° Balloon Weight: 326 grams
The landing location was less than one mile north of the Harris County Airport. This was an easy recovery taking place approximately 6 hours after launch and 3.5 hours after landing.
Recovery #5
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 20060475 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 03 March 2022 12:00Z Recovery Date: 04 March 2022 Recovery Location: Warm Springs GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.911476° -84.788418° Balloon Weight: 368 grams
This one landed near an old Georgia-Pacific plywood mill. Considering the direction of travel I’m surprised it did not end up in the trees. Ironically it landed just 1.05 miles WNW of another DFM-17 radiosonde that is stuck in a tree.
Recovery #6
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 20056990 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 13 January 2022 12:00Z Recovery Date: 6 March 2022 Recovery Location: Gold Hill AL Recovery Coordinates: 32.740729° -85.488666° Balloon Weight: N/A
This recovery was outside of my normal 20-mile range and therefore it is not depicted on the map. It was a difficult find. I did not locate it while onsite during my initial drone search. Only after an hour of reviewing the video at home did I finally spot it. Luckily the Google Earth view had the same bare trees nearby so I was able to pinpoint the location. After another quick drone flight to verify the location I hiked in to find the radiosonde suspended 15 feet off the ground. While pulling it down the string broke leaving the balloon and parachute stuck in a tree about 40 feet up, just out of reach with my 30-foot extension pole. Those should biodegrade over time.
Recovery #7
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 20041137 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 26 March 2022 00:00Z Recovery Date: 10 April 2022 Recovery Location: FDR State Park GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.847580° -84.707810° Balloon Weight: 310 grams
The night this landed I drove up to the park and got an exact location before it stopped transmitting. It ended up just 200 feet south of the White Candle Trail. The steep terrain made this one a challenging recovery. My initial recovery attempt on 27 March resulted in retrieving just the balloon and parachute, the radiosonde remained out of reach with my 30-foot extension pole, so I returned on 10 April with an additional 7-foot extension. I was able to recover the radiosonde by snagging the string and breaking it which allowed the radiosonde to fall to the ground (and roll down the mountain a bit).
Recovery #8
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 21038839 Launch Site: NWS Birmingham Launch Date & Time: 15 April 2022 12:00Z Recovery Date: 15 April 2022 Recovery Location: Carlisle Gap Rd, Talbot County GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.745323° -84.647900° Balloon Weight: 186 grams
I got lucky finding this one. The last position I had was ~1100 meters (3600 feet) east of Carlisle Gap Rd. My estimated landing location was close to the road so I scooted over there after work hoping the radiosonde was still transmitting. It was not but as I got close to the estimated location I started scanning the trees and found the parachute right by the road! Following the string led me to the radiosonde on the other side of the road. The radiosonde was an easy pull down with the extension pole. Then I pulled the string to get the parachute across the road (still in the tree tops). Once the parachute was across the road I cut the string and pulled the parachute down with the extension pole.
Recovery #9
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 22012644 Launch Site: NWS Atlanta Launch Date & Time: 13 August 2022 00:00Z Recovery Date: 14 August 2022 Recovery Location: Fortson GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.652040° -85.000330° Balloon Weight: 46 grams
This one was tracking toward a landing around the Columbus Airport so I thought I was finally going to get an urban chase. But about 25 minutes prior to landing the forward airspeed dropped by nearly a half. It ended up landing 10 miles NNW of the airport.
I usually like to find the radiosonde from the air with the drone before I start a ground search (so I know what I am getting into) but the trees swallowed this one up making it invisible from the air. Since the chase produced a very good GPS fix of the landing location I decided to give it a try. After a short hike through the woods I found everything in the trees. Luckily the parachute and balloon were reachable with my 30-foot extension pole. The pulldown was effortless making this an easy recovery.
One note about the balloon remains, they were the smallest of all the balloons I have recovered so far at just 46 grams. The only thing left was the neck and a very small portion of the body.
Recovery #10
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 22010376 Launch Site: NWS Atlanta Launch Date & Time: 14 August 2022 00:00Z Recovery Date: 14 August 2022 Recovery Location: Hamilton GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.652040° -85.000330° Balloon Weight: 354 grams
I tracked this one to an exact landing spot from one of the overlooks in FDR State Park. After obtaining permission from the land owner it was an easy walk in for the recovery. There was quite a bit of evidence suggesting this was an active cow pasture but none were seen.
Recovery #11
Type: Graw DFM-17 Serial: 22029584 Launch Site: NWS Atlanta Launch Date & Time: 19 September 2022 12:00Z Recovery Date: 19 September 2022 Recovery Location: Cataula GA Recovery Coordinates: 32.668137° -84.884298° Balloon Weight: 36 grams
This one landed in a driveway just one mile from my home. The item of interest from this one is the balloon weight…just 36 grams! The only thing left was the neck. This low weight was a contributing factor in the slow descent rate. It took 75 minutes to descend from nearly 115k feet.