how much could a weather balloon lift?

Answer 1

A weather balloon should be able to lift at least 1 kg or about 2.2 lbs. But more important is how fast it will go up. What you want is enough gas to get the balloon to ascend at a rate between 300 to 400 meters/minute for an ideal reading. The payload weight may varies with launch. Sometimes you may add things that will help you get the balloon off the ground without damaging the instrument or to just increase the chance of getting a successful flight with the required height Examples: You may need to use of a one or more light sticks when launching in low ceiling and dense fog. You may put extra gas and/or use the heavier severe weather balloons when launching in a heavy rain or freezing rain event to make sure it makes it through at least the lower level without the whole thing icing up. And during strong winds, a metal train regulator is used to help get the instrument off the ground.

So in reality, there are other factors that may require more gas into the balloon. Therefore the lifting power can vary with each flight.

Answer 2

Weather Balloon Lift

Answer 3

First to the above guy, all weather balloons are filled with helium. Anywho, a balloon filled to that width would have to be one big *** balloon before being filled or it would pop the second it hit freezing temps or the low pressure of the upper tropopause.Most regulation weather balloons are not that big. A project I just did yesterday had roughly 10 pounds on it and it lifted to 80,000 ft and traveled over 65 miles east. The TSA has a regulation to where the balloon can only have 12 pounds of cargo.

Answer 4

It depends on the type of gas you use and how full you wish to fill it. In order to get the maximum heights (typical bursting heights are 95,000 to 105,000 feet) you only put in enough hydrogen (most weather offices use hydrogen) to lift about 3 1/2 pounds. If you fill them so they are over half full, the bursting height would be less than 20,000 feet but would lift about 30 pounds. Other gases that are sometimes used lift less. They could lift more if you fill them more but you run too high a risk of bursting. The latex rubber is very thin and bursts and tears easily.

Answer 5

I have taken several upper air observations with balloons.In some cases the balloons reached a heitght of more than 31 Kilometres.

Answer 6

That's a good question, I was wondering the same thing myself

Answer 7

This is a very interesting question