Every day at exactly 12 noon, universal time, my colleague and I release a weather balloon from the Port-aux-Français meteorological station. The base is located on Grande Terre, the largest of the Kerguelen islands, which are part of a French overseas territory in the deep south of the Indian Ocean. It can get very windy here, with speeds above 40 knots (around 75 kilometres per hour). On such days, we must hold the balloon tight before letting go.
France sends out weather balloons from seven locations daily. Around the world, many other countries do the same thing, simultaneously. The balloons climb to an altitude of about 30,000 metres, before exploding from the atmospheric pressure.
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Meteorologists use the data generated by the balloon’s instruments to monitor atmospheric temperature and humidity levels, cloud-layer dimensions, and wind speed and direction. The information is distributed internationally, and eventually used to create weather predictions.
As an electronic engineer, my work here is very diverse. Beyond the balloon release, my colleague and I help researchers to fix and set up all kinds of electronics equipment — from electroencephalography devices for recording brain activity in animals to radar tide gauges or radio-frequency identification tags for tracking penguins.
About 40 people live on these islands. Most of us are biologists, but there’s also a small French military force here. In the summer, more researchers come to Kerguelen for shorter missions of three or four months.
To live here is a unique experience. The community is like a big family, and we organize a lot of activities in our free time. We have a small cinema, and we organize concerts and parties. It’s difficult to have this kind of community in big cities.
