Building a planetary nervous system
Atmospheric data is the biggest missing piece to improving modern forecasts. We fuse data from our long-duration balloons with state-of-the-art AI models to produce the most accurate weather forecasts.
Our end-to-end system
Harness Atlas, our global constellation of long-duration atmospheric balloons. Access critical data around the planet, including over oceans and the world’s most remote places.
Explore our constellation
Complete global access, from surface to stratosphere
WindBorne designs, builds, and operates the only technology that captures atmospheric profiles everywhere. Each balloon controls its altitude and flies autonomously for weeks.
The solid flight trace shows repeated descents through the troposphere over more than 35 days, with cruising altitude rising from around 11 to 18 kilometers. The dashed trace shows a traditional balloon’s single ascent.
Proven partnerships
WindBorne is proud of the breadth of our partnerships, which span from United States and international governments, to the private sector, to world-renowned philanthropic organizations. It is through these integral partnerships that our ground-breaking atmospheric data and forecasts make the greatest scientific and societal impacts.
Partner perspective“Because of their endurance and increased coverage, the balloons are a significant addition to existing distributed sampling techniques.”
NOAA Weather Program Office
Federal contract · 2026$48.7MContract ceiling for commercial atmospheric observations through 2033, supporting Air Force forecasting and mission planning.
Initial task order: $1.7 million.
Research perspective · 2025“The numbers clearly are best for the WindBorne data”
Bruce Ingleby, ECMWF, published by WMO. Comparing height consistency against forecasts, June–August 2025.
Peer-reviewed research · 2025NCAR and WindBorne researchers contributed to a study of Atmospheric River Reconnaissance, linking targeted observations to water management and flood-risk forecasting.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Atmospheric river research“These GSBs will provide vital in-situ observations to augment our understanding of atmospheric rivers.”
On the 2023–24 Atmospheric River Reconnaissance campaign.
SBIR Phase I award · 2024$231,171Research to extend WeatherMesh from medium-range forecasts into subseasonal prediction for Department of the Navy needs.
Expanding Performant Deep Learning NWP Models.
Hurricane field research · 2022WindBorne balloon sampling contributed to the ONR Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensification campaign, alongside aircraft observations of Atlantic storms.
Documented in the 2023 ONR program overview.
Committed grant · 2024$4.51MTo develop and validate AI weather forecasts for Africa, combining atmospheric observations and deep learning to support smallholder farmers.
Agricultural development · 20-month grant.
Public-private observing networkA National Mesonet commercial partner, contributing long-duration balloon observations to a network that supports National Weather Service forecasting and warnings.
WindBorne’s official National Mesonet partner profile.
Our unparalleled atmospheric constellation
Atlas is the largest balloon constellation in the world and the foundation of our planetary nervous system. We launch hundreds of autonomous, next-generation weather balloons each month and are scaling Atlas to permanently close atmospheric data gaps from pole to pole.