12 Days of FME 2024

You want to get really detailed? OK, here you go...

Units: Altitude is in metres and speed is in kilometres-per-hour. Time is in UTC and coordinates are in decimal degrees.

Meridians: To avoid scoring issues with near-polar ballooning (where the gap between meridians could be incredibly small), longitude lines only score points when crossed between 85°N and 85°S. It won't count if you cross north of 85°N or south of 85°S.

Flyovers: You don't have to cross the entire country or continent to score points. You just need to have your balloon overfly part of it, no matter how narrowly.

Updates: The API returns positions every minute while climbing, then every 20 minutes while cruising, so don't expect to see positional updates more often than that. Scores are also updated every 20 minutes, not continuously, so there may be slight delays to event scores.

Scoring: Each scoring action can only be counted once. For example, if you pass over Germany, you score 5 points. If the balloon is then blown back over Germany a second time, no more points are scored. The same applies to airports, continents, and longitude lines.

Manual Commands: You can only issue a new altitude command to your balloon every 15 minutes.

Ascent Rate: You can set this to make your balloon climb slowly or faster. You can set it when you descend to a lower altitude, but it won't make any difference, regardless of what the interface says. The API is intended for weather balloons so it only has an ascent rate. Any descent just immediately sets your balloon to the lower altitude.

Auto-Commands: Auto-commands are issued approximately 00:00 and 12:00 UTC - but assume a +/- 15 minute window for safety. Basically, we can't process every team simultaneously because I don't want to overload the APIs we use.

Oxygen Usage: A unit of oxygen is used by every auto-command where you are at 5,000m or above. A unit is also used for manual commands that cross from below 5,000m to 5,000m or above.

Oxygen Depletion: Once your oxygen is depleted, you can’t go back to higher altitudes. If your oxygen runs out at above 5,000m, the next auto-command will reduce the balloon elevation to 4,500m.

Airport Types: Airports are classified as medium, large, or spaceport. You lose points for being within 10km of a medium airport, 25km of a large airport, or 100km of a spaceport! You'll see the different buffer sizes on the status map.

Registration and ID: Your balloon registration is connected to your FME Community account. That's why you need to log in before you can participate. Each account can have only 1 balloon. You can participate as a team, but you would need to pick one person to control the balloon using their account.

Starting Over: You're stuck going in circles over the ocean? Why not delete your balloon and launch a new one? You can do that at any time. Obviously, your score resets to zero and you will have less time remaining in which to score points.

Forecast vs Simulation: The API used for our simulations may use a different model to your favourite weather forecast tool, so is not guaranteed to return the same results. Also, we simulate data in 12 hour blocks. By the end of the block (at the next auto-command) the real life weather my be totally different from what the simulation predicted. If you think your balloon is performing worse than the actual weather suggests, adjust its altitude to trigger a new set of simulated positions. But the API we use provides a snap simulation of complex systems, for a pretend game. Don't expect perfect accuracy.

Suggested Reading: For an insight into weather and ballooning, read Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones' account of the first round-the-world balloon flight. It's a fantastic book. You can also see their balloon capsule on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC.