The study notes that while some of the materials used in weather balloons—like latex and cotton string—are considered biodegradable, much of it, including the string, is not breaking down quickly.

The data sampled by weather balloons gets fed into forecast models, making the forecast clearer days ahead of a storm.

"Most weather balloons rise to about 100,000ft ... transport and dispersion of things such as pollutants and hazardous material in the atmosphere. "The model also works backwards - called back ...

China insists it was a weather ship blown astray ... 1,500m, although material is spread over a much larger area. Efforts to recover the balloon's equipment have been complicated by sea conditions ...

Art Thompson:There's a series of nylon strings that run through that balloon material to be able to carry ... The team sends up weather balloons called pibals to measure wind speeds.

The National Weather Service started launching weather balloons in the 1930s (when it was formerly known as the Weather Bureau). The storm of interest is now over land, even though it's more than ...