The Life Cycle of a Radiosonde

The development of scientific instruments was, only a few years ago, confined to universities and electronics companies having highly specialized human and/or technical resources. With the advent of open hardware initiatives, engineers, scientists, hobbyists, and even people with limited electronic skills have been able to tinker with complex electronic systems. Taking advantage of these inexpensive and widely available tools and in the context of an engineering project class for undergraduates, the authors set about building a working radiosonde prototype from the ground up, based on an open hardware platform and easily accessible components. As a result, a fully functional radiosonde has been built that measures, records, and transmits pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind, plus a small camera that stores images on a flash card. A release system was also developed so that the radiosonde can be detached from a balloon upon reaching a certain height, pressure level, or flight time. Once it is released...