Unexplained radar returns over Huntsville AL/Redstone Arsenal on 6/4/13

[Dave Gallaher]

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/06/so_why_was_radar_showing_a_mys.html#incart_river_default

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[Joey Ketcham]

Weird, I have no answers.. but sounds like this needs to be posted at http://lunaticoutpost.com/. They'd have a blast with this, and hard telling what explanation they would come up with.

 

[STexan]

Maybe it was inadvertently running in some odd mode that displayed ground clutter or a pocket of very moisture rich air as rain. I can't see any sort of operational mode imbedded into the image. Maybe hackers testing to see if it can be done on a targeted basis.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I read somewhere that there was something visible in the air and one claimed to have video of it. But you can't believe everything you hear, or even anything now days.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Maybe it was inadvertently running in some odd mode that displayed ground clutter or a pocket of very moisture rich air as rain. I can't see any sort of operational mode imbedded into the image. Maybe hackers testing to see if it can be done on a targeted basis.

I believe it also showed up on the private/TV station radars as well, so that kind of lets out the modal anomaly solution.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

I'd guess it was chaff since it originated over Redstone Arsenal. Maybe they're testing a new kind or something.

 

[mikedeason]

Chaff. Winds through the lower atmosphere were very light (less than 10 kts through at least 10k) and convective mixing/thermals would have kept it aloft for quite a while. The base reflectivity, CC and KDR products were also very useful in determining what it was.

 

[Stan Rose]

yep, obviously chaff--the conclusion that was just reached on their FB page as well

 

[rdale]

The problem is - how did it get there? It went from the surface up to 10,000ft within minutes and them up to 13,000 feet shortly after. Chaff falls down Plus there were no chaff streaks, this plumed upwards. And about two hours in another plume launched up.

All the while no jets were seen in the area. Just a brief helo overpass.

 

[Jake Orosi]

If people pointedly observed no jets in the area, that means they were looking; and if they didn't see anything actually there - no aircraft, no material, no smoke, no clouds of insects - to me that seems to leave pretty much some kind of random atmospheric curiosity. Since it's now "gone", obviously it no longer presents any kind of theoretical hazard. I'm not too worried.

 

[MClarkson]

Plus there were no chaff streaks

Chaff can be deployed in streaks or in blobs. Both are common. It can also be released by multiple aircraft/rockets at multiple altitudes, or a thermal could lift it above its deployment altitude, especially since this was the afternoon.

 

[Jake Orosi]

On the other hand, photos of actual bits of chaff found in area fields today are showing up online here and there.

 

[mikedeason]

Chaff can be deployed in streaks or in blobs. Both are common. It can also be released by multiple aircraft/rockets at multiple altitudes, or a thermal could lift it above its deployment altitude, especially since this was the afternoon.

Exactly. Again, that was the basis of my assessment last evening. Winds from the surface through the mid levels were generally well under ten knots and convective thermals could have easily taken chaff particles up and through 10k feet in the regime. Dispersal would have been fairly random depending on convective motion in light winds.

 

[mikedeason]

Of course, it would have been easier to claim it was a chemtrail or HAARP related, but I decided to leave that to the experts. ;-)

 

[Shawn Schuman]

Of course, it would have been easier to claim it was a chemtrail or HAARP related, but I decided to leave that to the experts. ;-)

That was my first guess.