Filling Weather balloons in a new way

Trivandrum met centre invents new method

BY A CORRESPONDENT
February 20, 2006

The Met Centre at Thiruvananthapuram has invented a new method for producing hydrogen gas which provides lift for weather balloons used to collect atmospheric data. This is a more efficient electrolytic method, that requires just the flick of a switch. The new technology does away with the need to handle corrosive chemicals. It uses a polymer electrolyte membrane to separate hydrogen and oxygen from distilled water by applying an electric current.

A prototype machine that uses the new process was demonstrated at the Indian Meteorological Department by a team from the Centre for Energy Research under the SPIC science foundation based at Tuticorin. The Met centre currently launches four weather balloons every day.