weinsteinjin t1_j9gwbxc wrote
Now that you know that atmospheric conditions are chaotic, and that balloons have next to no steering capabilities, are you still convinced that China launched them so they can fly across the Pacific, through Canada, just so they fly visibly over precise sensitive locations in the US? Nobody is wasting money making spy balloons when satellites would’ve sufficed. It shouldn’t be hard to spot the military’s fear mongering.
lemonpjb t1_j9hjs8g wrote
I work in telemetry and build radiosondes for a living; the idea that a state like China would use balloon technology for the purposes of clandestine spying is laughably absurd. There are so many technologies better-suited for this purpose.
Noob_DM t1_j9i58a8 wrote
> Now that you know that atmospheric conditions are chaotic
They’re not at high altitude. They’re actually pretty stable.
> and that balloons have next to no steering capabilities
That’s not at all true…
> are you still convinced that China launched them so they can fly across the Pacific, through Canada, just so they fly visibly over precise sensitive locations in the US?
It’s been done many, many times before… the Japanese were doing it all the way back in WWII…
> Nobody is wasting money making spy balloons when satellites would’ve sufficed.
They don’t, actually. For camera or radio imaging, sure, but for signal scooping, you need to be in atmosphere due to the way radio waves reflect off the ionosphere. That’s why the US is flying radio signal intelligence aircraft in the Black Sea instead of just using satellites to intercept Russian radio communications and gather intelligence.
> It shouldn’t be hard to spot the military’s fear mongering.
Try being a little more educated before making wild assertions.
czyzczyz t1_j9ifw5q wrote
It is worth noting that it is possible for stratospheric balloons to navigate with purpose within the chaos of different wind currents by controlling their altitude in order to choose which current to ride at a given moment. This is a thing that has been done. How difficult it is I leave to the nation states that might want to sense something they can’t detect from satellite altitudes (like magnetic fluctuations?) —or to the ham radio enthusiasts whose $100 Arduino balloons attract the ire of very expensive jet-fired munitions.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210222-how-googles-hot-air-balloon-surprised-its-creators
Da_reason_Macron_won t1_j9jpi35 wrote
Look man, a train just poisoned Ohio and the US got caught blowing up the nord stream, any media circus that can fill news times has to be exploited as much as possible.
_WhatchaDoin_ t1_j9gybyx wrote
Did they start from China, or from a boat in international water that could be close to US borders?
weinsteinjin t1_j9gzkbv wrote
Balloons were launched in Hainan in southern China.
_WhatchaDoin_ t1_j9h29rp wrote
Fair enough. It seems they were targeting something else.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/14/china-spy-balloon-path-tracking-weather/
import_torch-nn OP t1_j9gxono wrote
some sources claimed the first two(?) were aimed for guam or some location in middle of pacific (scouting other US allies' military bases? idk)
so anything could happen
weinsteinjin t1_j9gyfr3 wrote
With US military bases in every corner of the world, it’s kind of hard not to fly over one
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