(by Don Meador, Allen County Schools)
Allen County-Scottsville High School seniors Titus Carter and Jared Walden found themselves on an unexpected expedition Tuesday afternoon April 8. The pair---with the assistance of high school science teacher Jeremy Byrn---worked their way to a remote area off of Snake Creek Road in southern Allen County in search of a weather balloon launched from west Arkansas early Saturday morning. The search proved productive as the pair located the balloon in a tree in the woods.
The discovery of the weather balloon came as a welcome relief to staff and students at Sonora Elementary School in Springdale Arkansas. The balloon was launched from the school in northwest Arkansas on Saturday as part of what was hoped to be a short flight to collect weather data.
“Our EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology) program launched a high altitude weather balloon on Saturday morning around 9:50,” explained Joshua Worthy, EAST program facilitator at Senora Elementary School. “We predicted the balloon to travel about 150 to 180 miles, within the state of Arkansas. The plan was for the balloon to reach about 90,000 K, burst, and the payload of the balloon would parachute safely to the ground. We would then track down the balloon with our GPS receiver and return home with our gear.”
However, the flight did not go as planned.
“Our balloon got caught up in a very active jet stream and we were unable to keep up while tracking it,” Worthy said. “Within about five hours, our balloon left the state (Arkansas). Myself and our chase team---another teacher and two elementary students in our program---were unable to keep pace with the balloon. We had to turn back unfortunately due to timing and daylight.”
The GPS tracking system onboard the high tech weather balloon---also equipped with two cameras and a computer for collecting weather data---indicated the vessel had stopped its flight near Scottsville. With the information in hand, Worthy reached out to Allen County school administrators Monday seeking assistance in finding and retrieving the balloon.
“It seems to be about seven miles south of the center of town and could potentially be in a tree,” Worthy noted in an email to district adminstrators. “We have exact coordinates and several mapped images for assistance.”
The request for assistance was passed along to Byrn who asked Carter and Walden if they would be willing to attempt to locate the vessel. The pair embraced the challenge.
“We talked to Titus and Jared about how to use the coordinators Mr. Worthy sent us to find it,” Byrn explained. “Jared entered the coordinators into a GPS and they were able to drive to a general location. Once they got to that general location, I got on Google Earth. With Google Earth you can draw lines and measure distance. Looking at Google Earth, I was able to tell them to walk beside a creek for about 112 yards or about the length of a football field. Then, I could see that they would need to go left and up a hill about 40 yards.”
Locating the balloon was actually easier than the pair had imagined.
“We thought it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack but we were just walking through the woods when we noticed it looked like that someone had rolled the woods with paper,” Carter explained. “That of course was where the balloon’s chute had been ripped. We looked up and caught a glimpse of the cone and the rest of the balloon in the tree.”
The cone-shaped portion of the balloon---the part which housed the computer, cameras, and GPS unit---and a portion of the balloon’s chute were lodged high in the tree. Carter and Walden realized that recovery of the entire unit by themselves was not possible.
By Wednesday morning, Allen County school officials had contacted Worthy with the news that the balloon had been located and that an attempt would be made to remove the device from the tree. Later in the day, Brian Carter, Director of District Operations, and Building and Grounds Supervisor Clark Towery contacted the land owner and went back to the woods. Carter and Towery were able to use ropes to retrieve the balloon’s cone.
An inspection by Carter, Towery and Byrn revealed that the cone appeared to be in excellent shape. An LED light, believed to be the GPS indicator, was still flashing and the enclosed equipment was safety tucked away in the heavily taped vessel. Byrn noted that the on-board cameras might still be working as well.
Carter and Walden were finally able to see the vessel up close, prompting the science students to marvel.
“I think it’s pretty cool it made it this far,” Walden added. “It’s built pretty well.”
The balloon’s cone will be returned to Senora officials in the coming days. Byrn hopes that the Arkansas school will share the data and video from the flight with students in the Allen County School District. In addition, the balloon’s flight and the overall project has Byrn thinking about something similar for local science students.
“This makes me want to do something like that,” Byrn noted. “It amazing that those students can send something like to a high attitude and take data and then analyze the data once it’s returned. Then, they can compare the data to the audio and video they have and then track its flight by GPS. They will have all this data to compare. It will really be interesting to see how the speed of the balloon changed and temperatures changed. It’s amazing to see what we can do with the technology we have today.”
Worthy was grateful that the balloon was recovered. He also admitted his surprise that the balloon traveled over 600 miles.
“To be honest, I'm blown away that the balloon traveled so far,” Worthy said. “It's been a great learning opportunity for my students and myself. We were really glad that four different principals and teachers were very eager to help find our balloon.”
Worthy adds that after the module and all the “cool gadgets’ are returned, the students plan to create a film documenting the event.