Jordan Bell
EF0
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but Redstone Arsenal did confirm a chaff experiment earlier today.
Unexplained radar returns over Huntsville AL/Redstone Arsenal on 6/4/13
- Thread starter Dave Gallaher
- Start date
Windshear Kear
EF0
I've never been to that part of Alabama, but in Oklahoma west of OKC the wind farms can really show up fairly strong in the radar returns with yellows, oranges and greens under the right conditions. Don't know if there are windfarms in Huntsville, AL.
rdale
EF5
No there are not. It was chaff. It looked different because it came from a UAV (which travels at 80mph versus 500mph 
) and the winds aloft were very very weak.
) and the winds aloft were very very weak.
Tim Vasquez
EF5
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- 3,411
I started paging through the 1 pm radar imagery and once I saw where it was located (right over the arsenal), that told me everything I needed to know. I'm pretty sure this was a chaff release by a loitering UAV (as some stated above) meant to protect a systems test at Redstone by interfering with satellite-based measurement & signature intelligence. It's cheap insurance and it correlates to what the university students confirmed about finding fiberglass particles. They may be using a type of chaff with a large range of terminal velocities and dispersing it in carefully planned orbits. Apparently this technology has come a long way.
rdale
EF5
What caught most of us was the claim by people on the ground that there was no air activity. Guess not everyone was aware of the UAV testing and how quiet they can be
However I'm not sure it was to hide anything on the ground? It only remained as a blob because winds through the column were 10kts or less. Big difference in the way it looked yesterday.
However I'm not sure it was to hide anything on the ground? It only remained as a blob because winds through the column were 10kts or less. Big difference in the way it looked yesterday.
Dave Gallaher
EF5
What caught most of us was the claim by people on the ground that there was no air activity. Guess not everyone was aware of the UAV testing and how quiet they can be
I'm guessing that the blob's in proximity to I-565 would drown out much airborne noise from a small engine. Plus we are used to lots of big noises coming from Redstone...
Jeff Wright
EF4
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- 406
I wonder if our own Trip Tucker (from ENTERPRISE)--Travis Taylor from Rocket City Rednecks--was doing a stunt with a weather balloon.
Now I thought the old fashioned window showed up jagged on old radars.
I wonder if this might be artifacts of different imaging systems.
On old radars, chaff may have showed up jagged. On newer radars, the image gets softened into blobs.
With cameras it is the other way around. Digital images are often pixelated messes, with analog film having smoother images with less distortion.
One of these electric universe young earther creationists was over at phil plaits bad astronomy (now Cosmoquest) forum, trying to say that it was electric forces that levitated the trailers/containers in that footage a year or three back.
I said it was due to them acting as box kites due to different angles of attack from the winds but he didn't believe that.
Then, he tried to call blooming of outdoor floodlights in the rain as corona discharges--when they were just artifact of the cameras. Not that corona discharges don't happen occur--but you must understand that every imaging system has its own artifacts.
The iris of a film camera left something that looked like a UFO to some. This is one reason I would love to see three different cameras on a rail--in a crossbow type set up--like how bird hunters used to put cameras on rifle stocks.
If you see something that turns up on film, digital, and camcorders all three--then you know its real.
I wonder how older radar would have seen this "window" as chaff used to be called
Now I thought the old fashioned window showed up jagged on old radars.
I wonder if this might be artifacts of different imaging systems.
On old radars, chaff may have showed up jagged. On newer radars, the image gets softened into blobs.
With cameras it is the other way around. Digital images are often pixelated messes, with analog film having smoother images with less distortion.
One of these electric universe young earther creationists was over at phil plaits bad astronomy (now Cosmoquest) forum, trying to say that it was electric forces that levitated the trailers/containers in that footage a year or three back.
I said it was due to them acting as box kites due to different angles of attack from the winds but he didn't believe that.
Then, he tried to call blooming of outdoor floodlights in the rain as corona discharges--when they were just artifact of the cameras. Not that corona discharges don't happen occur--but you must understand that every imaging system has its own artifacts.
The iris of a film camera left something that looked like a UFO to some. This is one reason I would love to see three different cameras on a rail--in a crossbow type set up--like how bird hunters used to put cameras on rifle stocks.
If you see something that turns up on film, digital, and camcorders all three--then you know its real.
I wonder how older radar would have seen this "window" as chaff used to be called
rdale
EF5
No. It was chaff. It showed up the same in all weather radars old and new. As I mentioned, this was a blob because it was released at very low speeds in very weak winds.
Jeff Wright
EF4
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- Apr 23, 2010
- Messages
- 406
I figured it was chaff. I wonder if aerogel can show up on radar. I thought this was interesting
http://tinfoilpalace.emp.yuku.com/topic/4123681
http://tinfoilpalace.emp.yuku.com/topic/4123681
E. Clark
EF0
Deason, you have the best sig on the forum.. but you left out the Jackrabbits and Groundhogs.
mikedeason
EF5
It's been a few years since I've updated that sig. Since then I have chased dust devils on Mars, created an intergalactic video brokering company and patented a camera mount to fit the spiraled horn of the winged unicorn which is my chase vehicle of choice in recent times.
I really need to update my sig.
rdale
EF5
On 4 June 2013, a military chaff release occurred near Huntsville, Alabama, within the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) mesoscale network. This event was unusual because the chaff remained in the atmosphere—maintaining a radar echo on nearby weather radars—for nearly 10 h after the initial release. This paper examines the radar evolution of the chaff event, supplemented by environmental observations using the UAH profiling equipment. Additionally, unique operational considerations faced by the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Huntsville are addressed.
http://www.nwas.org/jom/abstracts/latest/latest.php
http://www.nwas.org/jom/abstracts/latest/latest.php
Dave Gallaher
EF5
Thank you, Rob. Haven't thought about that event recently. Glad to see the docs in depth
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