EARTH · WEATHER BALLOONS
The world’s daily breath, tracked live
Twice a day, at the same moment worldwide — 00:00 and 12:00 UTC— hundreds of upper-air stations launch a balloon at once, building the single biggest snapshot of the atmosphere that feeds every weather forecast on Earth. Each balloon rises for around two hours to about 30 km, its radiosonde radioing back temperature, humidity, pressure and wind the whole way, before the balloon bursts and the sonde parachutes down. Volunteers with radio receivers relay those signals to SondeHub launch-site, and that is what this map shows: the sondes actually in the air, right now.
What the colours mean
Each balloon on the map is tinted by which phase of flight it is in, read from how fast it is rising or falling.
New to radiosondes, or wondering how a balloon reaches the edge of space? This explainer unpacks it:
How the tracking works
A radiosonde is a lightweight box of sensors that broadcasts its position and readings on radio as it rises. Most are single-use and are never recovered.
Hobbyists around the world run small antennas that pick up those broadcasts and relay them to SondeHub, which stitches them into one live global feed. Coverage is best where there are more receivers.
Major upper-air launch stations
A selection of the world’s upper-air stations that release radiosondes as part of the global observing network — grouped by continent. Open one for its location, launch schedule, and the balloons aloft near it right now.
North America
South America
Europe
Africa
Asia
See it in context
About this data
Live balloon positions come from SondeHub, an open, community-run network: volunteers relay the radio broadcasts of radiosondes in flight, and SondeHub publishes them as one global feed (keyless). The launch-station directory is drawn from SondeHub’s own list of upper-air sites. Because tracking depends on a volunteer nearby, the map shows the balloons currently being received— there may be others aloft out of receiver range. Every figure is shown with the time it was reported. This page never claims a specific balloon launched from a specific station; for what is genuinely in the air, trust the live map.