Here’s an interesting article about the weather balloons which are launched twice a day by National Weather Service folk to give us a view of the vertical structure of the atmosphere.  This knowledge is crucial in understanding the likelihood of severe weather, the type of wintry precipitation, and the pattern of high and low pressure which pushes storms across the US.  While satellites provide a lot of information on vertical conditions used in driving weather forecast models, the use of weather balloons and the radiosondes which are attached to them give pinpoint observations which can’t be duplicated by the satellite readings.  You can read the article at https://wpri.com/2017/07/13/how-weather-balloons-work-and-why-theyre-crucial-to-forecasting/.

Source: NOAA