KOMO TV posted a fascinating video of a weather balloon making a 22-mile high flight through the atmosphere and falling back to earth. You can see it here. As a meteorologist, though, I am even more fascinated by the temperature profile that the balloon travels through. It shows not only the temperature decreasing with height through the troposphere (the layer of air closest to the surface), but the warming in the stratosphere (due to absorption of sunlight by the ozone layer there). You can also see a halo or ring around the sun as the balloon passes through some cirrus (ice crystal) clouds.
