Things seem to be going well over on Diego Garcia for Adam and his research partners. The three grad students and their technician have divided up their work days into three shifts. During each shift, a number of weather balloons are launched and then monitored for up to two hours each. The balloons carry an instrument pack called a radiosonde that transmits atmospheric data back to a computer. Once the balloon reaches 80,000 feet or so, it bursts and everything just falls back to earth. I asked Adam how they can be sure that their meteorology junk doesn't interfere with passing planes and he assured me that the radiosonde & balloon are so lightweight that an aircraft would annihilate them on contact. Plus, they do contact air traffic control prior to each launch. Weather balloons are deployed twice each day - every single day - at over 800 locations around the globe, so I suppose if they were problematic to aircraft we would have heard about it by now.
The area where the DYNAMO office is set up on Diego Garcia was previously a "tent city" for troops during the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is empty now except for several work trailers and some probably-high-tech and necessary scientific weather devices. Adam said that curious Navy and Air Force personnel have dropped by to visit, and some friendly military guys gave them a cot for napping during their overnight shifts. (Napping? Are they in kindergarten? Geez, I'm glad they are not the air traffic controllers!) There is a beautiful beach steps away from their work place and Adam said he has gone for a dip or two, maybe between balloon launches? He eats meals at the Officer's Club, cruises around the island in some sort of nice-looking Ford truck, and has even attempted to windsurf. Hopefully some pictures will arrive any day now, as I am looking forward to seeing what this Shangri-la looks like. I'm sure Adam will send some as soon he gets a break from the horribly laborious life he is leading there.
It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
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