Music played bythe atmosphere.
Seven historic skies. The weather balloons that flew into them are the instruments.
Listen01The Twentieth
of May
Nine launches around the Moore EF5, played in order. The near-silence at 0:58 is the hour of the tornado, which no balloon can record.
9 LAUNCHES · CAPE 6,513 J/KG · EXTRA BALLOON AT 17Z
02The Last
Launch
Lake Charles launched every six hours as Laura closed in, then nothing for two days. The endless rise is the last balloon’s climb, repeating.
7 LAUNCHES IN 36 H · 979 HPA · SILENT THROUGH LANDFALL
03April
Twenty-Seventh
Seven soundings through the largest tornado outbreak on record. The repeating bass line steps down the way the pressure did.
SHEAR 15 → 37.5 M/S · CAPE 4,266 J/KG
04Forty-Five
Seven
Afternoon and pre-dawn launches alternate as the dome builds. The night sweeps grow louder because the nights really did stop cooling.
14 LAUNCHES · PEAK 45.7 °C · +15.5 K ABOVE NORMAL
05Fifty-One
Kelvin
Ten launches spanning two winter months. The harmony turns major at the position of January 5th, the day the vortex broke.
158 SOUNDINGS · −83 °C ALOFT · +51.8 K IN 8 WEEKS
06Four
Skies
Six launches through the bomb cyclone. The four closing bells are four real tropopauses found in the final profile.
SHEAR 43.2 M/S · 4 TROPOPAUSES IN ONE SOUNDING
07Four
Characters
One sounding from each station, each with its own instrument voice, plus a year of Oakland’s tropopause as the closing melody.
4 STATIONS · 4 VOICES · 1 YEAR OF DAILY DATA
How a balloon becomes a track
A radiosonde rises from the ground to about 30 km, measuring the air the whole way. AEOLIAN plays that profile like a score. Temperature sets the pitch, so each sweep you hear is one balloon climbing into colder and colder air. Wind speed opens and closes the tone. Humidity adds breath.
Layers the data marks by name ring as bells at their true heights: the freezing level, the tropopause, temperature inversions. The chord bed underneath is written by hand, and reanalysis weather data slowly shifts its brightness. Repetition and timing are composed; the shapes of the sounds come from the measurements.