Main NOAA Flagstaff building

Some of the weather sensors out back

More weather sensors and communications satellite dishes

Sensors on tall tower

The three things pointing down that look like shower heads are for measuring snow. It's a new technology they are testing for measuring the rate of snowfall. They bounce a signal down to the white snowboard and measure the time it takes to bounce back to get the dept.

Weather sensors display

Demo station for the tours

Inside the weather control room

Inside the weather control room

Inside the weather control room

Inside the weather control room

Inside the weather control room

Heading out for the 01:00PM weather balloon launch

San Francisco Peaks to the left and the balloon dome room to the right

They use hydrogen to fill the balloons because it's much cheaper than helium

Laying out the payload line that is hanging on the post

Payload with weather sensors, the wire looking thing sticking up is a temperature probe

The balloon is released

The orange thing hanging from the line is a parachute for the sensor box after the balloon pops. The balloon starts out at 6 feet in diameter. As the balloon gets higher it expands to about the size of a 2 car garage then pops. The orange parachute then drops the payload back to earth.

Weather balloon heading towards the San Francisco Peaks

The payload is at the very bottom

Communications tower disguised as a ponderosa pine tree

Kenwood TS-2000 ham radio for communicating with ham radio operators