ARM is a DOE program that ships top-tier instrumentation to various sites around the world. Loads of university researchers will follow, and you end up with a massive open source data pool. Houston in particular was focused on Aerosol effects on precipitation in the Coastal-Urban environment. There were loads of balloon launches from sites all over the city during the campaign, from large ozonesondes to the tiny sparv embedded foam cup ones (https://sparvembedded.com/products/windsond)
I'm in NY, and my university NOAA department has a focus on PBL Ozone measurements lately. My work in particular is focused on low cost UAV profiling up to about 150m, with a pipe dream of doing 0-3km.
I'm just a grad student, but if anything there sounds interesting feel free to email and I can try and get you in touch with more knowledgeable people.
Neat :) I'm involved in a few projects focused on vertical profiling in the coastal urban boundary layer.
I saw in a response you said the balloons will periodically return to sea level and ascend (which sounds like a fun design challenge by itself.) Will you be doing so near populated areas as well?
If I may suggest a game dynamic: having a busy body yell at you "no public moorings!" when you pass a private mooring.