When we launch a weather balloon, it measures temperature, pressure and relative humidity as the balloon goes up, so we get measurements of those three variables at different heights. The changes in the measurement value allow us to understand the structure of the atmosphere. One thing we can learn from the weather balloons is the height of the base of the clouds and how thick the clouds are. We can measure this by calculating the height of the balloon when the relative humidity increases to 100% from whatever the relative humidity is at the surface. We know that the balloon has left the cloud when the relative humidity drops below 100% again and we can use the height when the balloon leaves the cloud to calculate the cloud’s thickness.
Tomorrow we are expecting a big storm, which means that some of our scientific research might be paused! To make sure the crew is safe and the equipment is not damaged from big waves, we sometimes have to wait for the swell and storm to calm down. We are getting ready for a big swell the next couple days! We'll see you on the other side!
