Observing Boundary-Layer Winds from Hot-Air Balloon Flights

High-resolution upper-air wind observations are sparse, and additional observations are a welcome source of meteorological information. In this paper the potential of applying balloon flights for upper-air wind measurements is explored, and the meteorological content of this information is investigated. The displacement of a hot-air balloon is a measure for the wind speed and direction and thus a potential source for wind observations in the lower part of the troposphere. The response time of the balloon on the changing wind is fast in the beginning and levels off for smaller relative wind speeds. Four case studies are presented, and the balloon-derived winds are compared with other wind observations and with results from the HIRLAMALADIN Research on Mesoscale Operational NWP in Europe (HARMONIE) model. It turns out that hot-air balloon tracks can indeed produce useful wind observations just above and in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL).