Vaisala Radiosonde RS41 Unwinder with BioTwine

Upper-air soundings provide crucial atmospheric information for weather forecasting including public safety, critical severe weather forecasting, numerical weather prediction and research. Meteorologists and research institutions launch radiosondes every day — but by nature, some cannot be recovered. Because of this, sustainable materials are important and Vaisala has focused on developing materials and manufacturing processes that lighten the environmental footprint of radiosondes.

Vaisala BioTwine™ is a remarkable cellulose-based string that features biodegradable components, no microplastics and uncompromising quality.

This white paper describes the BioTwine material and provides evidence of its biodegradability in different environments. The paper also shows that sounding parameters which are potentially sensitive to string material and unwinder design change had no statistical differences, and the measurement accuracy of the Vaisala Radiosonde RS41 is not affected by the change in string material.