Drones offer alternative to balloons for weather research

Weather research in the lower atmosphere has traditionally relied on thousands of weather balloons launched daily—but they're blown by the wind and depend on irreplaceable helium. Weather stations can't reach high enough, and aircraft are too expensive. The US company Meteomatics has developed Meteobase, an automated drone station, per The Guardian. The drone launches itself, gathers atmospheric data at different altitudes following a pre-programmed route, returns to base to recharge, and sends its data to researchers.

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