Vaisala RS80 Radiosonde Joins the Collection
A sealed, factory-fresh Vaisala RS80-67 radiosonde has been added to the collection, accompanied by a detailed history of its Finnish maker.
The collection has acquired a Vaisala RS80-67 meteorological radiosonde, dating from the late 1990s or early 2000s and preserved unopened in its original gold foil packaging. The specimen is complete: cardboard housing with polystyrene insert, sensor boom, unwinder, water-activated battery and the original calibration strip carrying the individual coefficients of this particular unit.
The RS80 family was produced from 1981 to 2008 and became the most widely used radiosonde of its era, serving the World Meteorological Organization as a transfer standard in international intercomparison trials. All three of its measurements — pressure, temperature and humidity — are made capacitively, by the BAROCAP, THERMOCAP and HUMICAP sensors respectively.
Published alongside the catalogue entry is a full history of Vaisala, from Vilho Väisälä’s first Finnish radiosonde launch on 30 December 1931 and the delivery of twenty RS11 units to MIT in 1936, through the invention of the HUMICAP thin-film humidity sensor in 1973, to the company’s present-day work — including the pressure and humidity sensors operating on Mars aboard the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.