Kaitlin Flanigan

Students Launch Weather Balloon for Science Experiment

Data will be studied by Nipmuc Regional High Students

For the second year in a row, students at Nipmuc Regional High School in Upton launched a weather balloon loaded with scientific equipment high into the sky over Central Massachusetts.

This year’s balloon is twice as large as the balloon launched last year, and carried a mini-computer thousands of feet into the sky. The computer was programed to measure things like air temperature and pressure every few seconds.

This week the launch site was moved from Upton, near the school, to Dudley due to upper-level winds. By moving the launch site west, and tweaking the amount of helium in the balloon, students hope to watch the balloon come down over land as opposed to in the ocean. That would allow them to best study the onboard instruments.

A camera is also on board, to hopefully provide stunning images of the atmosphere.

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