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Researchers launch weather balloons in North Bay to monitor atmospheric river storm

Researchers in the North Bay studying atmospheric rivers with weather balloons
Researchers in the North Bay studying atmospheric rivers with weather balloons 02:38

A group of scientists from Southern California recently came to the Bay Area to send up a series of weather balloons to help them study the atmospheric river event dumping rain on Northern California.

They're with UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. Adolfo Lopez and Subin Yoon's mission in Bodega Bay is to collect weather data on the impressive atmospheric river storm. 

Every three hours, they're blowing up these weather balloons and attaching GPS radiosondes, sending them straight into the storm. 

"They'll give you kind of a picture of the atmosphere at the time, kind of taking a snapshot right at that time. And so we do it successively every three hours and we're going to see the storm come through the area," said Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes Field Operations Manager Yoon.

Researchers are measuring the magnitude and direction of the storm, collecting crucial weather data like temperature, pressure, wind, and relative humidity.

The weather balloons and GPS radiosondes can measure all levels of the atmosphere up to around 80,000 feet, providing real-time weather data every second. This information is then sent to the National Weather Service and used to update and improve weather models meteorologists rely on to forecast the storm.

"We're doing this for a bigger cause, so it's amazing that I can be part of it, but also I'm so glad to be part of it, you know? And that I feel like I'm doing something that's so relevant," said Yoon.

"So for me, it's you know, just changed my whole outlook, like you know you think the weather is, 'Is it raining or sunny?' and it's so much more than that," said Lopez, a research and development engineer for the center.

Both know they're working to help forecast and understand atmospheric rivers that impact all of us, which gives higher meaning to what they do.

Researchers with UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography are launching weather balloons in Tacoma, Washington to see the impact of the storm up north and also in Marysville to study the storm's snow impact up in the Sierra Mountains.

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