balloons

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Here comes the sun: Tethered-balloon tests ensure safety of new solar-power technology

April 22, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — What do tiny dust particles, 22-foot-wide red balloons and “concentrated” sunlight have in common? Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories recently used 22-foot-wide tethered balloons to collect samples of airborne dust particles to ensure the safety of an emerging solar-power technology. The study determined that the dust created...
Two small balloons against a blue sky to the left of a large tower with a

New Sandia balloon-borne infrasound sensor array detects explosions

January 11, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sheets of plastic similar to that used for garbage bags, packing tape, some string, a little charcoal dust and a white shoebox-size box are more than odds and ends. These are the supplies Danny Bowman, a Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist, needs to build a solar-powered hot air...
Danny Bowman holding a stryofoam box (left) Sarah Albert holding an infrasound sensor (right) with a bright blue sky as background

The destructive effects of supercooled liquid water on airplane safety and climate models

November 3, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Supercooled  water sounds smooth enough to be served at espresso bars, but instead it hangs out in Earth’s atmosphere, unpredictably freezing on airplane wings and hampering the simulations of climate theorists. To learn more about this unusual state of matter, Sandia National Laboratories atmospheric scientist Darielle Dexheimer and colleagues have organized an expedition to...
Ice pops from a balloon's tether line as Sandia National Laboratories researcher Darielle Dexheimer gathers in an instrumented balloon at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement research station at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The balloon is about 25 feet above Dexheimer's head and the lines are completely iced over.