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I have questions about helium
May. 3rd, 2025 03:11 pmI recently learned about the disruptions of weather balloon launches due to loss of staff at NOAA because Those Awful People.
I started by asking the question: do we still need weather balloons or have satellites gotten Good Enough. When I asked that question, I found this pieces at ars:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/should-we-be-concerned-about-the-loss-of-weather-balloons/
This felt extremely ambiguous. A lot of other discussion of this topic focuses on the perpetrators of the change (agree that those folks are reprehensible!), rather than whether the change will make a meaningful difference in forecast quality.
Along the way, I learned that weather balloons contain, typically, helium. Under the previous administration, the helium reserve was sold off. Learning about that made me aware of two things. First, helium is mostly collected as part of fossil fuel extraction. Second, helium is very important for MRI machines; it is used in liquid form for cooling the magnets. I also learned that under the previous administration weather balloons in Alaska switched to produced-on-site hydrogen, so as to avoid having to ship in helium. Hydrogen poses its own safety risks. I then asked, can we do MRI using something else super cooling? I learned about i_Vision which may or may not be what is in this:
https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/technology/blueseal-helium-free-mri
To recap: we really needed weather balloons in the 1970s. Specific balloon launch failures identifiably led to missed forecasts and identifiable people dying as recently as the 1979 Windsor Locks hurricane. Decades of improvements in GOES satellites in combination with little to no research on the added benefit from weather balloons means it is impossible to know right now just how much is lost by reducing or eliminating weather balloon launches.
Weather balloons use a fossil mineral — helium — in limited supply and recently in shortage, and this is a one time use of helium. MRI machines are not single time users. While new technology (drastically reduced or eliminated helium needs in MRI machines) may reduce our competing needs for helium over time, it would be prudent to take a hard look at the weather balloons use of helium and consider whether it could safely be replaced with hydrogen. But there’s no need to do that if weather balloons are not adding identifiable value to weather prediction, versus GOES satellites.
When I started this process, this was not the answer I was expecting to arrive at. That’s been happening to me a lot over recent years. GLP 1s didn’t immediately turn into a fen phen style disaster. I actually value the AI summary of customer reviews on Amazon. And maybe we can reduce or eliminate our use of weather balloons or at least the helium in weather balloons.
ETA: I later learned that helium is also used in rockets, some but not all of which can be recovered. Helium is also used in deep diving (heliox) some of which can be replaced with hydrogen. Weather balloons have forced me to really understand helium in a way that nothing about my life prepared me for. I don’t know that I am grateful, but I am fascinated, and looking at the periodic table and contemplating methodically applying the same degree of research to the unfamiliar elements of it. Possibly the familiar ones as well.
I started by asking the question: do we still need weather balloons or have satellites gotten Good Enough. When I asked that question, I found this pieces at ars:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/should-we-be-concerned-about-the-loss-of-weather-balloons/
This felt extremely ambiguous. A lot of other discussion of this topic focuses on the perpetrators of the change (agree that those folks are reprehensible!), rather than whether the change will make a meaningful difference in forecast quality.
Along the way, I learned that weather balloons contain, typically, helium. Under the previous administration, the helium reserve was sold off. Learning about that made me aware of two things. First, helium is mostly collected as part of fossil fuel extraction. Second, helium is very important for MRI machines; it is used in liquid form for cooling the magnets. I also learned that under the previous administration weather balloons in Alaska switched to produced-on-site hydrogen, so as to avoid having to ship in helium. Hydrogen poses its own safety risks. I then asked, can we do MRI using something else super cooling? I learned about i_Vision which may or may not be what is in this:
https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/technology/blueseal-helium-free-mri
To recap: we really needed weather balloons in the 1970s. Specific balloon launch failures identifiably led to missed forecasts and identifiable people dying as recently as the 1979 Windsor Locks hurricane. Decades of improvements in GOES satellites in combination with little to no research on the added benefit from weather balloons means it is impossible to know right now just how much is lost by reducing or eliminating weather balloon launches.
Weather balloons use a fossil mineral — helium — in limited supply and recently in shortage, and this is a one time use of helium. MRI machines are not single time users. While new technology (drastically reduced or eliminated helium needs in MRI machines) may reduce our competing needs for helium over time, it would be prudent to take a hard look at the weather balloons use of helium and consider whether it could safely be replaced with hydrogen. But there’s no need to do that if weather balloons are not adding identifiable value to weather prediction, versus GOES satellites.
When I started this process, this was not the answer I was expecting to arrive at. That’s been happening to me a lot over recent years. GLP 1s didn’t immediately turn into a fen phen style disaster. I actually value the AI summary of customer reviews on Amazon. And maybe we can reduce or eliminate our use of weather balloons or at least the helium in weather balloons.
ETA: I later learned that helium is also used in rockets, some but not all of which can be recovered. Helium is also used in deep diving (heliox) some of which can be replaced with hydrogen. Weather balloons have forced me to really understand helium in a way that nothing about my life prepared me for. I don’t know that I am grateful, but I am fascinated, and looking at the periodic table and contemplating methodically applying the same degree of research to the unfamiliar elements of it. Possibly the familiar ones as well.