[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by deadhorsey ↗

Is that just rewinding wind data?

Yup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYSPLIT

[Eternally Solo]

Contribution to the thread by Eternally Solo:

The%20Balloon.mp4

[kellyhound]

shot down.

Advanced F-22 fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia then fired a single missile to take down the Chinese spy balloon at 2:39 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, said a senior US military official, who also briefed reporters Saturday.

The moment of impact could be seen from the shore as onlookers captured video of the military operation.

The military’s attention next turns to recovering the balloon debris. The US Navy and Coast Guard had assets on standby to assist with the recovery effort before the balloon was shot down, another Defense official told CNN prior to the operation.

“The debris is in 47 feet of water, primarily – the recovery, that will make it fairly easy,” the senior military official who briefed reporters Saturday said once the operation to shoot down the balloon was carried out.

“Actually, we planned for much deeper water. So as far as the specific timeline to recovery, I can’t give you that right now,” the senior official added.

The debris field from the balloon is spread out over 7 miles, a senior military official said, an area that Navy and Coast Guard vessels are now searching for remnants and pieces of the balloon.

The recovery operation has begun on the surface of the water, with ships looking for wreckage floating on top of the Atlantic Ocean in the debris field, a senior military official said. When the salvage vessel arrives in the area, the underwater effort will commence with Navy divers and unmanned vessels.

The vessels on site have already begun to establish a security perimeter around the wreckage and are scouring the surface of the ocean for parts of the balloon.

There are plans for the balloon equipment to be taken to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, to be analyzed by experts from the bureau and intelligence agencies, two people briefed on the matter said.

Earlier Saturday, a senior Defense official said the Pentagon has launched “a collaborative effort” with the FBI and “counterintelligence authorities” to assist with “categorizing and assessing the platform itself.”

William Kim, a specialist in surveillance balloons at the Marathon Initiative think tank in Washington, told that balloons are a valuable means of observation that are difficult to shoot down.

Kim said that as satellites become more vulnerable to being attacked from the Earth and space, balloons have distinct advantages.
Firstly, they don't easily show up on radars.
"These are materials that don't reflect, they're not metal. So even though these balloons expand to quite large, detecting... the balloon itself is going to be a problem," he said.

And the payload, if small enough, can be overlooked.
Balloons also have the advantage of holding relatively stationary positions over a surveillance target, compared to constantly orbiting satellites used by spy agencies to take photographs.

"These things can stay overhead, they can stay over one spot months at a time, compared to the low-Earth-orbit satellites," Kim said.

The balloons usually operate at altitudes of 65,000-100,000 feet, and this one is at around 46,000 feet, he said.
"That's definitely a little low. If you wanted it to be harder to spot, if you want it to be harder to shoot down, then it would make sense to operate at higher altitudes."

[kellyhound]

The U.S. military shot down what U.S. officials called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023. Officials said that the U.S. Navy planned to recover the debris, which is in shallow water.

The Chinese foreign ministry declared its “strong discontent and protest” about the United States’ downing of the balloon. In a statement, the ministry said that China had told Washington repeatedly that the balloon was a civilian aircraft that had inadvertently flown over the United States and its presence was “totally accidental.”

“In these circumstances, for the United States to insist on using armed force is clearly an excessive reaction that seriously violates international convention,” the statement said. “China will resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise involved, and retains the right to respond further.”

[kellyhound]

In relation to the publications of the incursion of a balloon flying in the territory, the Colombian Air Force, is allowed to inform the public opinion:

1. On February 3, 2023 in the morning, the National Air Defense System detected an object above 55,000 feet, which entered Colombian airspace in the northern sector of the country, moving at an average speed of 25 knots, identifying in it, characteristics similar to those of a balloon.

2. Through the Defense Systems, the Colombian Air Force followed the object until it left the airspace.

3. In this way, it was possible to determine that this element did not represent a threat to national security and defense, as well as air safety.

4. The Institution carries out the pertinent investigations and coordination with different countries and institutions, to establish the origin of the object.

[ride]

One Big White Chinese Balloon
(Sung to the tune "99 Luft Balloons")

(intro)
You look up in the blue sky
Ninety-nine times, nothing there
Maybe some chem trails spewing death
Just in case you weren’t aware
This one time that we all saw
Post to Tik Tok "Something's out there"
Floating in the Winter sky
One big white Chinese balloon goes by.

(Verse 1)
One big white Chinese Balloon
In the big Montana sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
Something up there it’s a spy
How long has it been up there
Are there more are we aware
Keep it in the camera eye
Where one big white Chinese balloon goes by.

(Verse 2)
Montana sky is really big
It says that on their license plates
About eight people live up there
How can we decide their fates
Dont shoot it down is the decree
It might kill someone don’t you see
Imminent danger we’ll deny
Let one big white Chinese balloon float by

(Verse 3)
One Balloon, F-22’s
Sent to shoot the spy ship down
Hold the phone, just fly around
Need an O.K. from the prez
Just orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Just burn fuel in the Winter sky
As one big white Chinese balloon goes by

(Bridge)
Can one big white Chinese balloon go by?

(outro)
Several hundred other times
Chinese have sent their spy balloons
To slowly float up in the sky
And look down on our missile tubes
We do the same with satellites
And U-2 spy plane overflights
And here is a Chinese balloon
Shoot it down or let it go?

[Pyramid_Head]

I'm sure they were totally not spying on us.

In all seriousness though, it's quite amazing the balloon even made it over the U.S for as long as it did post 9/11.

[houseoftechno]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

shot down.
...
(4 vids)

I love the crowd comments in that first vid. "'merica fawk yeah!"

[Eternally Solo]

Contribution to the thread by Eternally Solo:

BalloonRecovery.jpg

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Pyramid_Head ↗

I'm sure they were totally not spying on us.

In all seriousness though, it's quite amazing the balloon even made it over the U.S for as long as it did post 9/11.

The Chinese spy balloon was equipped with an antenna meant to pinpoint the locations of communications devices and was capable of intercepting calls made on those devices, according to declassified intelligence released by the State Department on Thursday.

Officials do not yet know what information the balloon was supposed to be stealing as it made its way across the country.

The balloon had a signals intelligence array — fancy spy speak for an antenna that can locate communications devices and listen into them. But officials do not yet know if that array was meant to gather calls made on military radios or from ordinary mobile phones or something else altogether.

Many of the first Chinese spy balloons that were observed near U.S. military exercises or bases were not identified as surveillance tools. Instead, they were classified as unidentified aerial phenomena, modern-day Pentagon jargon for U.F.O.s.

Over the past 18 months, the United States began learning more about the Chinese spy balloon program. As officials reviewed some previous cases of unidentified aerial phenomena, they determined that they were spy balloons. A review of the old data showed that at least three spy balloons entered U.S. airspace during the Trump administration. There was at least one additional visit during the Biden administration.

But all of those previous incidents were relatively short — not the dayslong transit of this month’s spy balloon.

The FBI has started its initial stages of evaluating the pieces of the balloon that were recovered and brought to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia for analysis, senior FBI officials said Thursday.

Only evidence that was on the surface of the ocean has been delivered to FBI analysts so far, one official said, which includes the “canopy itself, the wiring, and then a very small amount of electronics.” The official said analysts have not yet seen the “payload,” which is where you would expect to see the “lion’s share” of electronics.

The officials added that understanding the components of the balloon is vital intelligence and could be “important pieces of evidence for future criminal charges that could be brought.”