[BenLurkin]

Do any FR radar experts seen this kind of thing before?

A screenshot of a Bureau of Meteorology map showing a strange S-shaped formation off the coast of Western Australia on February 12, 2014. (ABC News)

[Darksheare]

That is real weird, it isn’t my fault, and I can only hazard a guess that checking local air currents, pressure, and particulate matter would give them any hints as to what they were seeing.

[Salamander]

Well, Nessie went missing.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[Army Air Corps]

What in the Sam Hill?

[Army Air Corps]

It’s a sine!

[The Cajun]

Kind of odd that there's a place called Serpentine just to the right of the cross hairs on the map.............Just saying.

[Berlin_Freeper]

S(atan)

[martin_fierro]

From this angle it looks more like a “N”

[Nowhere Man]

Sharknado!!!! B-)

[Flick Lives]

“Give me an ‘S’”!

[Drango]

RUN!!!!!!!!!!!

[enduserindy]

I’d have to see a loop. Given the location I’d bet there was an imaging loop too. I see know reference to how long it was there and if it moved. Outside of those I’d say hardware issue.

[fso301]

Looks like a software glitch

[Dallas59]

[Gaffer]

The weather radar is probably a less sophisticated variety RF wise wrt to waveforms, with a digital back end for processing etc. The article didn’t say whether it had Doppler, or what polarization or frequency diversity capability it has or doesn’t.

I’d rule out environmental effects if this was a persistent trace, probably birds too since that’s an odd flight pattern not normally seen. The article didn’t say whether this was stationary or not.

My guess is EW spoofing, likely not too much of a difficult job since the radar is stationary. Maybe by a Naval vessel, aircraft or even a land-based emitter trying out some of their techniques.

[Nonsense Unlimited]

A plane doing some cloud seeding?

[Hot Tabasco]

An out of control missile launched from a Chinese submarine would be my guess........

[I want the USA back]

It’s “strange” only because in some peoples’ minds it resembles the letter S.

In reality, it is not strange. In reality, it is a normal phenomenon.

Like the “face” on Mars that wasn’t a face, people see things that they want to see that aren’t there.

Besides, it’s not a very good letter S.

[Born to Conserve]

It’s too symmetrical to be anything natural or random. If a jet had to waste some time, this shape would be about right. If the air was in an unstable equilibrium, the contrail could have upset it and produced something the radar saw.

[OwenKellogg]