Yep. You can see this live with this website (link). When you get to the site, on the left is a menu, click on “wind speed” and a submenu will appear under it allowing you to select the height above ground that you wish to view the wind speed. Enjoy! https://www.ventusky.com/?p=39.7;-95.5;3&l=wind-10m
That is correct and exactly what I was saying. It also has the ability to move slower than the wind currents and even stay still as it did in Montana. I don't know if it can self-plot or if it is satellite controlled. Those satellite frequency antennas on it look suspicious to me. I think the data collected is sent immediately and the Chinese are no doubt watching the feed like they would a drone. I doubt that anything is recorded on the balloon. The recordings are in China.
Thanks, Thomas! The wind moves east/north all the way up to 12,000m. The next height you can choose is 30,000m and the wind moves in the completely opposite direction.
Yeah, I have read that it is flying at an ideal altitude for an EMP weapon. It may be surveillance or just a trial to see how they fly and when/if the U.S. can detect them. I think the military is a bit embarrassed as I understand they didn't detect the balloon until a civilian sky watcher spotted it. I understand they can be fitted with a rudder for minor changes in flight and that they can carry about a ton of payload. I think they are difficult to shoot down because there is little to target--little metal, no heat. Those same properties make detection difficult except optical, and the USAF doesn't want to pay hundreds of people to watch the skies with telescopes. I am sure that if they carried a weapon, they would be easier to see on radar or other detection method.
Well, if all these things are true we can rest assured their satellite technology or at least their cameras aren't worth a flip since they need a balloon flying low altitude to target our silos which have always been in the same spot !!! At any rate a Nuke targeting our silo is at best a token since ours can all be fired long before their missiles hit their targets. Of course the next thing we'll be hearing is the Russians have given them their high speed missile technology as gratuity for helping the Russians in this Ukraine failure. Now that might not be a bad idea since their hyper-sonic missiles have never been tested in extended flights, there is no known manned aircraft that ever flew that fast and a well known fact hyper-sonic speeds are very likely to cause a melt down on the skin. Air can destroy any object if the speed is fast enough, one tiny shift in direction is enough to break up a missile. Hint... the Columbia breakup caused by damage to the outer wing on re entry exploded due to extreme heat inside the wing structure on re entry. It is pretty hot up there inside the atmosphere but not in space since there is no air in space. Not a definitive but yet something to consider about super fast missiles in prolonged flight. I haven't seen the ranges to hit the US from Russia or China but both might not make it to target in such a long flight. It isn't the mileage but the heat build up that might be their failure. Then too the Russians have never shown a working long range hyper-sonic missile and might already know it is not possible to fly that fast with a large heavy fueled Rocket, only these short range hyper-sonic ones on Ukraine.
I saw no need to read past this telling statement. I don't see the point of citing sources and giving links. - FF That's funny. You don't see the need to give any evidence of what you say. I suppose it's just received wisdom from on high. Go away. Although I know you'd like to keep it going I'm ignoring you from here on out.
Well, now that it has flown clean across the country, they shoot it down over the Atlantic. Where’s the facepalm emoji? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-military-shoots-chinese-spy-balloon-atlantic-ocean
My guess is that they finally shot it down is because of all the crap from the public that they were getting bombarded with for letting it get this far!
This happened late yesterday evening. If you see something in the distance it is very deceiving in the air or high altitude. You may even think it is in your area when it isn't. I saw a missile launch late evening from the Edwards air force base and it was going out to the pacific but I swear it looked like it was just a few miles from where I was. It is just an illusion but it did get my attention while I was driving home from work in Nevada just at dusk. I thought for a moment things was beginning to get bad so I sat there a long time in my car waiting to see what was happening next.
This is a discussion forum. This is neither the Drudge Report nor an academic paper. This is a discussion in which people are expected to use their own brains. If someone feels that it would give them more credibility to cite a third-party source, that person is, in essence, acknowledging his or her own ignorance on the subject and hoping a third party might be more persuasive. That's okay, as long as it's voluntary. When someone demands a citation, he is accusing the other party of being ignorant of the facts, and that can be interpreted as an attack. In a discussion, it is rude and unnatural to demand citations. If you have other information, then give it. Don't expect others to do your homework for you. I can't speak for everyone but I believe that most people don't care if you believe them or not, but just want to carry on a civil conversation with people who want the same. When that is the case, constant demands for citations are merely disruptive, and I strongly suspect that is usually the point of such demands. If you have something to say, say it if you can do so without attacking other forum members, but don't try to control what other people say. These days, newspapers don't even cite their own sources, yet people are always looking for media citations. That is a clear attack. If you want to ignore someone do so, but don't expect them to go away because you disagree with them.
It has been shot down the Pentagon has confirmed. So far no warheads coming our way. It was also confirmed it was a high-tech surveillance balloon.
Glad it was shot down ... wish it had been sooner. I just wonder how much possible classified information it transmitted home , before it was shot down ?
I don't know what it's intent was but it has certainly taken the focus off of Hunter and Biden's China connections for a few days. Not a whisper about Biden's collection of top secret documents. Hmmmm?
The media is now saying Biden was going to shoot it down sooner but had to wait where it was safe over the ocean. If that is true, then when it was first spotted over Montana, why didn't the jets they sent up shoot off its antenna making it impossible to transmit to a satellite? That would have been an easy task and not pose any threat to property. After they first spotted it, it could have been shot down and it had 100,000 acres to fall on where this time of year there aren't even any cows. It probably posed more danger by falling into the ocean.