Introduction

Flight prediction is an essential task prior to and during a high altitude flight. Knowing the ascent rate, the burst altitude and the most current winds data, you can predict the landing area. One of your rescue teams can drive to the rendez-vous point ahead of time and expect only minor variations from the predicted coordinates.

On-line prediction

There are several sites offering on-line predictions based on past winds data:

• Balloon trajectory forecasts, at the University of Wyoming.
• Landing predictor, at the University of Cambridge
• On-Line Near Space Flight Track Prediction Utility, by the Near Space Ventures team.

This is an example of how the Balloon trajectory forecast, at the University of Wyoming, works. Basically you just enter the launch coordinates and the expected burst altitude:

Then, click submit and you'll get a summary like this. Based on the prediction I just run, the balloon is expected to land 10.6 nautical miles, 48º from the launch point:

If you scroll down, you can see the expected behavior of the balloon at different altitudes:

Flight prediction with HABTracker for Android

Check the HabTracker wiki entry.

Flight prediction with WBALTRAK

Check the Wbaltrak wiki entry.