EARTH Β· WEATHER BALLOONS Β· UNITED STATES

Upton, New York

Upton, New York is an upper-air station in United States that releases weather balloons as part of the global observing network. Its radiosondes go up at 00:00 & 12:00 UTCβ€” the standard synoptic launch times used worldwide.Below is the nearest balloon aloft right now and a doorway into the live map, both from SondeHub β€” shown with the time reported, and never a claim that a specific balloon launched from here.

Counting the balloons aloft…

About this station

WMO STATION72501
LAUNCH SCHEDULE00:00 & 12:00 UTC
ELEVATION20 m (66 ft)

Upton, New York sits at 40.87Β°N, 72.86Β°W and about 20 m (66 ft) above sea level. As a WMO upper-air station it launches radiosondes on the standard synoptic schedule β€” the coordinated worldwide release times that build the global atmospheric snapshot every forecast model starts from. Whether a balloon is in the air near here at this exact moment depends on the launch cycle and on a SondeHub receiver being in range, so the live block above is the real picture, not the schedule alone.

What a launch here looks like

At each synoptic time, staff fill a balloon with hydrogen or helium, attach a radiosonde, and let it go. The balloon climbs at roughly five metres a second, expanding as the air thins, while the sonde radios back temperature, humidity, pressure and β€” from how it drifts β€” the wind at every level. Near 30 km the balloon stretches until it bursts, and a small parachute lowers the sonde back to the ground, often more than a hundred kilometres downwind. If a SondeHub receiver hears one of Upton, New York’s sondes, it appears on the live map above.

Nearby launch stations

The closest upper-air stations to Upton, New Yorkβ€” other places releasing balloons into the same skies.

See it in context