Calculators

There are several different calculators available within Balloon Track. Access these calculators by clicking on Calculators on the Main Screen Menu. This term Calculator may have outlived its accuracy. I'll have to consider that for a future update.


Alternate Site Predictions

One you have generated a flight prediction, you can generate a secondary prediction indicating the movement of the balloon from the perspective of another location. See the Alternate Site Prediction page for screen shots and a description of this "calculator".


Multi-Site Predictions

Once you have generated a flight prediction you can generate multiple predictions for multiple stations based on that data.

See the Multi-Site Prediction Page for a screen shot and description.


Separated Payload Finder

Should a payload "drop" off the support line and plummet to the Earth without a parachute, you might be able to find it with this calculator

See the Separated Payload Finder Page for details.


Forced Site Selector

This is similar to the Reverse Calculator. However, in this case, the program runs recursive predictions increasing the altitude by 1000 feet for each iteration. It then compiles a list and shows you how close each prediction places the touchdown to your desired touch down location.

See the Forced Site Selector Page for details


Actual vs. Predicted

Once a flight has completed you can compare the predicted touch down point with the actual landing site's location.

If a prediction has been run then the launch and predicted coordinates are pre-entered. Just enter the actual latitude and longitude and click "Compute" and the values to the right side of the screen will be filled out.


Calculate Grid X,Y or Lat,Long

This is primarily for EOSS, but if you use a grid coordinate system, the program can calculate grid positions from latitude and longitude. Conversely, you can calculate a latitude and longitude with a known grid X, Y position.

 


Convert Latitude and Longitude

 

I've tried to make this smart. Type in a latitude and longitude in "any" form at the top and press one of the buttons to convert it to the indicated format. If you attempt to type in what to you is a sensible format and it's rejected, let me know and I'll try and incorporate it if possible. Latitude and Longitude sense (N, S, E, W) is determined by the last character that indicates that value. For instance if you entered "S39 30 22N" then the program would convert that to a north latitude. Any number of spaces between numbers will indicate a break from degrees to minutes to seconds. You can enter in straight decimal and that will be converted to the various formats.

In many forms you can enter latitude and longitude for various locations. There is often a "Set" or similarly tagged button. Click it and this form appears with a slightly different appearance:

Enter a latitude and longitude in any of the acceptable input formats. This form ONLY converts to decimal degrees so when you click "Convert", the results will be displayed in that format. If you click "OK" then those results will be returned to the form you are entering in location information. If you click the close button (red x) then this form will close and no lat/long info will be returned. By the way, if you just click OK, the data will be converted to decimal degrees and transfered without you seeing the results on this form. Slightly faster.


Reverse Calculator

Suppose you want to land as near as possible to a particular location.

Run a prediction (the program needs that data to calculate an ideal launch point).

Enter a latitude and longitude for the desired landing point.

Click "Calculate" and the ideal Predicted Launch Point location will appear.

You can set this value as a new Launch Point in the rest of the program by clicking the "Set Launch Point to these Coordinates" button.

When you return to the Main screen you will need to click the recalculate button to generate a new prediction from that location.


Descent Calculator

Calculate the rate of descent at sea level for your system.

See the Descent Calculator page for details