ballon-sonden.
/ˌbalɒnˈsɒnd/, U.S. /bæˌlɑnˈsɑn(d)/, /bæˌlɔnˈsɔn(d)/ Meteorology. Now chiefly historical.
A small balloon used to carry instruments for recording atmospheric conditions into the upper atmosphere; a weather balloon, a sounding balloon.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > study or science of weather > meteorological instruments > [noun] > carrier for or with instruments > balloon
ballon-sonde1898
sounding balloon1937
weather balloon1940
rawinsonde1946
1898 Science 7 Jan. 34/1 In the first international flight of ‘ballons-sondes’ on November 14, 1896, balloons were despatched from Paris, Strassburg, Berlin and St. Petersburg.
1901 Aeronaut. Jrnl. Jan. 3/2 In another part of this journal will be seen the record of the first ascent of a ‘ballon sonde’ in England.
1913 Geogr. Jrnl. 41 60 This book gives the results of two hundred observations of pilot balloons or ballon sondes.
1934 A. H. R. Goldie Abercromby's Weather (rev. ed.) iii. 51 These ballons sondes, as they are called, carry meteorographs, that is, self-registering instruments, arranged as a rule to record pressure and temperature and sometimes also humidity.
1989 Technol. & Culture 30 957 Millikan subsequently reexamined his 1922 ballon-sonde and airplane data in the context of his newly found belief in the existence of ‘cosmic rays’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1898