The ability to analyze and forecast stratospheric weather conditions is fundamental to addressing climate change. However, our capacity to collect data in the stratosphere is limited by sparsely deployed weather balloons. We propose a framework to collect stratospheric data by releasing a contrail of tiny sensor devices as a weather balloon ascends. The key machine learning challenges are determining when and how to deploy a finite collection of sensors to produce a useful data set. We decide when to release sensors by modeling the deviation of a forecast from actual stratospheric conditions as a Gaussian process.

The ability to analyze and forecast stratospheric weather conditions is fundamental to addressing climate change. However, our capacity to collect data in the stratosphere is limited by sparsely deployed weather balloons. We propose a framework to collect stratospheric data by releasing a contrail of tiny sensor devices as a weather balloon ascends. The key machine learning challenges are determining when and how to deploy a finite collection of sensors to produce a useful data set. We decide when to release sensors by modeling the deviation of a forecast from actual stratospheric conditions as a Gaussian process. We then implement a novel hardware system that is capable of optimally releasing sensors from a rising weather balloon. We show that this data engineering framework is effective through real weather balloon flights, as well as simulations.

Scientists in China have launched a weather observation rocket from a semi-submersible drone ship in a world's first for meteorological research. The unmanned semi-submersible vehicle (USSV) was designed specifically to deploy instruments that can hit altitudes beyond the reach of weather balloons. The breakthrough could lead to networks of USSVs around the oceans for cheaper, more efficient data collection, the researchers say. Scientists in China have launched a weather observation rocket from a semi-submersible drone ship in a world's first for meteorological research. According to a team from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the USSV is built to launch a type of instrument called a rocketsonde.