Weather rocket launched from unmanned Chinese vessel in world first

The weather rocket - known as a rocketsonde - is designed to perform weather observations beyond the range of balloons. It was launched from an unmanned semi-submersible vehicle (USSV) built by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese team believes a network of USSVs equipped with rocketsondes could be used to enhance weather science and improve forecasting. The results of the vessel’s sea trials over the past two years have been published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"Launched from a long-duration unmanned semi-submersible vehicle, with strong mobility and large coverage of the sea area, rocketsonde can be used under severe sea conditions and will be more economical and applicable in the future," said lead author Hongbin Chen, a professor of atmospheric and marine science at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Current techniques for atmospheric sounding at sea include dropping radiosonde from aircraft which travel down through the atmosphere collecting data, as well as drfitsonde balloons that carry telemetry equipment laterally through the stratosphere for several days or weeks. There are also sounding stations dotted around the oceans, but compared to the coverage over land, these are extremely limited. By developing unmanned oceangoing vessels that can launch weather rockets on command, the team believes previously unmonitored sections of ocean can now be studied more regularly.