Balloon Prediction
To aid our weather balloon retrievals at NOAA, I created this balloon prediction program using C#. It uses wind data gathered at various sites each day to generate an estimated path and landing point that a balloon launch might follow. This helps us plan where to start driving immediately after launching a balloon, and sometimes convinces us to call off a flight entirely (if it's going to Nebraska, for example).
Prediction Map
This screenshot shows the resulting estimated landing point of the balloon, plotted as a point using Google Maps. Wind data is retrieved from the University of Wyoming's website, then used in the prediction algorithm. Processing is offloaded to a worker thread to keep the GUI responsive. The program also generates a KML file containing the calculated flight path, which can be viewed in Google Earth.
Program Options
The options screen allows for many program settings to be changed. Launch location, predicted rise rate, and burst altitude may be adjusted to fine tune the predictions. Also, a different prediction from the University of Wyoming may be plotted to compare to the usual program results.
Data Site Selection
This dialog allows for different wind data sites to be selected (the default uses whatever site is closest to the launch latitude/longitude).