Robot-Launched Weather Balloons in Alaska Hasten Demise of Remote Stations (sciencemag.org) 52
The National Weather Service is choosing automated launchers over human employees to deploy weather balloons in Alaska. From a report: Last Thursday, just before 3 p.m., things began stirring inside the truck-size box that sat among melting piles of snow at the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska. Inside, software ran checks on instruments to measure atmospheric temperature, humidity, and pressure; a tray slid into place; and a nozzle began filling a large balloon with gas. Finally, the roof of the box yawned open and a weather balloon took off into the sunny afternoon, instruments dangling. The entire launch was triggered with the touch of a button, 5 kilometers away at an office of the National Weather Service (NWS).
The flight was smooth, just one of hundreds of twice-daily balloon launches around the world that radio back crucial data for weather forecasts. But most of those balloons are launched by people; the robotic launchers, which are rolling out across Alaska, are proving to be controversial. NWS says the autolaunchers will save money and free up staff to work on more pressing matters. But representatives of the employee union question their reliability, and say they will hasten the end of Alaska's remote weather offices, where forecasting duties and hours have already been slashed. "The autolauncher is just another nail in their coffin," says Kimberly Vaughan, a union steward in Juneau.
Once deployed across the state, the $1.2 million machines, built by Finnish company Vaisala, will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS, Susan Buchanan, an NWS spokesperson says.
The flight was smooth, just one of hundreds of twice-daily balloon launches around the world that radio back crucial data for weather forecasts. But most of those balloons are launched by people; the robotic launchers, which are rolling out across Alaska, are proving to be controversial. NWS says the autolaunchers will save money and free up staff to work on more pressing matters. But representatives of the employee union question their reliability, and say they will hasten the end of Alaska's remote weather offices, where forecasting duties and hours have already been slashed. "The autolauncher is just another nail in their coffin," says Kimberly Vaughan, a union steward in Juneau.
Once deployed across the state, the $1.2 million machines, built by Finnish company Vaisala, will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS, Susan Buchanan, an NWS spokesperson says.
What was that saving? (Score:4, Insightful)
will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS
Okay, I see that this is in Alaska. But a million dollars a year for one FTE? No wonder the union is squawking.
Re:What was that saving? (Score:4, Informative)
It seems like they are shooting for 3 FTEs per location, but because there aren't enough people they have to keep moving them around to cover. So while it still seems high, $333k per employee when you include transportation to remote areas and maintaining accommodations for them in said remote areas starts to seem more plausible. If you're flying in all supplies with a bush pilot things get expensive.
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It seems like they are shooting for 3 FTEs per location,
Eight hours a day is one FTE, not three. I guess if they said they're trying to replace one full time job and two needless supervisors with one machine, someone would have wondered why they needed the extra two people. At $333k/year you're talking about a pretty good paying job, even assuming that the pay is only half the cost of the employee. $150k/year is a good sum. You can see why the union is objecting.
But then, is it REALLY an 8 hour task to prep and launch one of these balloons? Really? Because the
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The balloons launch every 6 hours. You need about 5 FTEs for 24/z. I think this reduces the 5 FTEs to about 3, which makes the math much more reasonable. Basically, the 0600z launch is remotely monitored, day shift reloads the machines, so you need about 2 FTEs to get 7 day/week local coverage. plus some allowance for 3 shifts of remote monitoring and management.
Balloons launch every 12 hours. Not 6. Unless there's a request for a special release, which is rare in Alaska.
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I wonder why they can't use drones rather than balloons. Balloons would seem to just drift with the wind and end up goodness knows where. Drones could be used to fly for hours with hydrogen fuel cells and then return to base.
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The drift is part of the point. Combined with GPS, you get wind speeds and directions at different heights from the movement of the balloons.
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will save about 8 hours of forecaster time a day -- and about $1 million a year at NWS
Okay, I see that this is in Alaska. But a million dollars a year for one FTE? No wonder the union is squawking.
From the article:
Now, Buchanan says, NWS will need just one person [instead of three] at each remote site, to serve as a community liaison and to reload the autolauncher every 12 days. The other staff will relocate to bigger offices, like the ones in Anchorage or Fairbanks, where they can retrain for missions such as forecasting sea ice conditions and volcanic ash hazards, she says. The agency also plans to scale back office space and housing at the remote sites.
So the mistake is trying to connect the 8 hours of forecaster time and the $1M in savings. They are two different things. The savings from the 8 hours of forecaster time might not be monetized and could just free the forecasters to do more needed work. The $1M saving could be from reductions in leasing office space, leasing permanent housing in a remote area, travel costs, recruiting and hiring costs, background checks, etc.
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Unions: What are they for, again? (Score:1)
Unions: "We demand that these people get to keep their boring-ass, poorly paying jobs in remote, cold huts instead of allowing them to move to better paying jobs in warm warehouses putting together robot balloon containers!"
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Unions: "We demand that these people get to keep their boring-ass, poorly paying jobs
If NWS is saving a million a year by getting rid of an employee, then it isn't a poorly paying job.
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Launching balloons is probably the least technical part of the job. So while I feel for these low skill employees at NWS, I feel it's better to save there where it will not effect our forecast accuracy.
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If automation makes this part of forecasting more efficient and less expensive then why are we bitching.
Why are you bitching? I'm not. I'm just pointing out that if they save $1 million a year after installing a $1.2 million machine and it is one FTE of time (ok, 1.4 FTE if you add weekends) then it must be a pretty good paying job -- as opposed to the poorly paying job that the OP claimed.
So while I feel for these low skill employees at NWS,
I think the summary, at least, was pretty explicit in saying it was saving forecaster's time -- and forecasting is not "low skill".
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It is the funnest part though.
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The $1M a year isn't paid to the employee.
Thank you, Captain Obvious. Of course the savings would be salary PLUS benefits and costs. For normal employees, the usual estimate is the cost of an employee is twice the salary. Even if it is 3 times for this job, then the salary is well north of $200k/year. (One mil divided by 1.4 divided by three.)
And that savings is AFTER spending $1.2 million the first year and ongoing maintenance costs the following ones.
oh (Score:2)
The entire launch was triggered with the touch of a button, 5 kilometers away at an office of the National Weather Service (NWS).
Dang, 5km away!! Tell me more about these robot computer thingies!
Aggregate Individuals (Score:1, Offtopic)
I'm sure these workers, who were in stable employment working in the great outdoors, will adapt just fine to stuffing amazon boxes on a zero-hour contract in a windowless warehouse, sleeping in their cars, and watching their new employer desperately trying to robot away their job. I mean, its only a couple of decades of trying to keep in front of the boot of automation and then they get to die anyway so no biggie right?
Anyway, they can console themselves by thinking about how good all this progress will be
How will society survive? (Score:2)
How will society survive the robot automation of weather balloon launching.
Weather balloon launching is the keystone to western civilization. I see us collapsing into the dark ages now this important career path has been stolen by robots.
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I dont know what kind of weather balloons you are thinking of, however they are NOT normally on tethers.
That is kind of the point, one of their major functions is to measure wind direction, strength, and temperature a LOT higher than any tether will get them.
Buggy Whips (Score:3)
Oh well... just add it to the list, I guess:
So, ummm... why is anybody upset about this, again?
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Doctors still use leeches.
They keep blood flowing to limbs after they've been reattached after accidental amputation.
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Doctors do use leeches still. Though they are bred and not collected. So leech collectors were replaced by leech breeders.
I think I now hate you, for making me look that up [sciencenetlinks.com] and learn about it. (Blech!)
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Candle makers - who saw a massive loss in sales once windows and skylights were invented.
Sounds Good (Score:2)
8 hours a day ? (Score:3)
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Bring back the buggy whip makers. (Score:1)
say they will hasten the end of Alaska's remote weather offices, where forecasting duties and hours have already been slashed
Go to a mirror, look yourself in the eye and shout: "YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO A JOB!" Things have been this way literally since the stone age. In order to raise up the whole, things must be made more efficient. Tools are invented that make manual tasks obsolete, and put people out of work. Some continue to work in the niches of the field, some retire, some re-train and do something else. This has been and always will be a way of life.
Launch is automated (Score:2)
But who chases the bear off the roof to let the balloon release?
Free up staff (Score:1)
"free up staff to work on more pressing matters"
Like finding a new job.