ChelseaBeach

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I think that the balloons did not become obsolete because they gather informatio in a different way than weather sattelites. They are used to check the information and make sure that it is correct. A weather or sounding balloon is a balloon (specifically a type of high altitude balloon ) which carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature , and humidity by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde. To obtain wind data, they can be tracked by radar, radio direction finding , or navigation systems (such as the satellite based Global Positioning System also known as a GPS).