In recent weeks, one Chinese surveillance balloon and three other as-yet unidentified objects were shot down over North America, prompting many to wonder what’s causing this sudden influx of unidentified objects in the continent’s airspace.
While there remain many questions left unanswered about these objects, their intent, or origin, mounting evidence suggests that they may have been operating over North America for some time, but went largely unnoticed by a defense apparatus that’s attuned to identifying more traditional airborne threats.
Related: The rundown on all 3 ‘UFO’ intercepts this week
Balloons are much harder to detect and track than you might think
The Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 may have been over 200 feet tall, but that didn’t make it any easier to detect and track for American defenses. Despite its immense size, radar waves tend to travel right through these sorts of balloons. As a result, they’re often as small on radar screens as a bird or a stealth aircraft. These more recent unidentified objects downed by American fighters were much smaller than the surveillance balloon shot down on February 4, making their detection even more challenging.
“What we’re seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section,” Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said earlier this week.
However, there’s another reason why these other objects have managed to metaphorically fly under the radar for so long.
Related: Chinese spy balloon: Answering all your questions (and dispelling the myths)
Keeping tabs on North American airspace is no small task
The U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) are both tasked with the defense of North American airspace. While this may seem like a simple task, it’s anything but — these commands use a variety of different radar arrays to keep tabs on the airspace above 9.54 million square miles of North American territory, not to mention the airspace extending hundreds of miles out to sea in all directions. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, when you account for tracking aircraft out to sea, the total amount of American airspace extends to 29 million square miles.
Within American airspace alone, there are an average of some 45,000 flights per day, ranging from small private aircraft to the largest commercial airliners. When you consider this breadth of territory and the volume of permitted flights through it per day, you begin to get a sense of just how monumental that air defense task can be.
As a result, NORAD and other defense entities place “filters” on what they actively track, sort of like the filters you might place on a website when searching for used cars. Rather than flagging everything radars spot in the sky, filters are put into place to only flag objects that constituted traditional threats — so small, slow-moving objects were intentionally filtered out.
“These are very, very slow objects in the space, if you will, going at the speed of the wind essentially,” VanHerck explained.
Related: China insists that its balloon was not spying as US launches recovery operation
NORAD is detecting more unidentified objects because it has changed its detection ‘filters’
Recently, NORAD adjusted its practices and effectively removed all of the filters on what it tracks. This creates a glut of information for the command to sift through, but also allows for the identification of more of these small and unusually shaped objects. For instance, the object shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron, and which is believed to be benign, was said to be octagonal in shape and about the size of an ATV — even smaller than a car.
“We have been more closely scrutinizing our air space at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week,” Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said on Sunday.
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The recent reports of unidentified objects being detected in the sky are a reminder that we still have much to learn about the world around us. While some may dismiss these sightings as mere illusions or hoaxes, the fact that military forces have reportedly shot down some of these objects over North America is a cause for concern. It is important that we remain open-minded and scientifically rigorous in investigating these phenomena, as they may have important implications for national security and our understanding of the universe. At the same time, it is also important to maintain a healthy skepticism and avoid jumping to conclusions before we have a clear understanding of what these objects are and where they come from. Overall, the recent sightings of these strange objects in the sky are a fascinating and mysterious development that has captured the public imagination, and it will be interesting to see how this story develops in the coming months and years.
When will the Chinese government be held accountable for all the things. This is quite distressing.