Day 8: Experiment!
Finally the day came to do our experiment. We divided into three groups, stationed at three different locations along a corridor from La Paz up into the mountains. Our goal was to characterize the mountain chimney effect, where during the night, cooler air sinks from the mountains to the city, and during the day, hot air rises from the city towards the mountains. We started collecting data before sunrise to collect data both before and after the wind direction shifted. We had the setback of two of the tethers holding the balloons breaking, causing us to lose the sensors and be unable to collect more data at that site. Despite that, we were able to gather some interesting data for the Bolivian students to analyze in a class during Fall 2023.
The team at the "Curva Uno" site with their balloon inflated, about to attach the payload
The "Escuela" site team launching the balloon.