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Radar Mystery Hasn't Been Solved Yet
Courier & Press ^ | 12/11/18 | Jon Webb

Posted on 12/12/2018 8:18:03 AM PST by BenLurkin

When large, storm-like blips flashed across radar in Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, the National Weather Service was stunned – because it wasn’t raining a drop.

All kinds of guesses flared up on social media: a flock of birds; aliens; residue the government uses to control the weather, etc.

But a tweet from Eyewitness News meteorologist Wayne Hart on Tuesday morning seemingly cleared the fog. Citing an unnamed pilot, he said Evansville air traffic control claimed a military C-130 released a stream of chaff – radar-jamming material sometimes used during training exercises – a few miles northwest of Evansville.

A story from the Courier & Press pointed out that military bases sat near the areas where the blips appeared: Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Scott Air Force Base in Western Illinois.

But if this was a case of military chaff, and it did come from a C-130, that plane didn’t come from either of those bases.

“Whatever aircraft it was, it was not a Scott Air Force Base craft,” Master Sgt. Thomas Doscher said Tuesday morning.

(Excerpt) Read more at courierpress.com ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: southernillinois; westernkentucky
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To: BenLurkin
I wouldn't rule out a simple screw up, they happen even with the best trained crews and most sophisticated equipment.

Several years ago I personally saw a fighter-sized aircraft drop a pair of flairs over a western city while entering the pattern to an airport. I asked my buddy, the former AF Fighter pilot about that and he said it was almost certainly an accident or mistake on "switchology" while configuring for landing. He said it wouldn't have been intentional, they aren't supposed to drop flares over populated areas or when they are low enough that the flares will hit the ground and potentially start a fire - unless they are actually being engaged of course. Not likely in the instance I witnessed since the pilot continued downwind/base/final as if nothing had happened. The "who, me? Nah, nothing happening here..." approach.

The upshot is, mistakes happen. So maybe the chaff dispensers get reloaded, inventories quietly adjusted, the CO chews out the crew, and no-one outside the unit is ever the wiser.

21 posted on 12/12/2018 9:16:53 AM PST by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: BenLurkin

Over the last couple of years there has been a explosion of new military Radars on the HF frequencies across all bands...so much so its becoming a big problem as they create so much interference.


22 posted on 12/12/2018 9:26:33 AM PST by dpetty121263
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To: sean327
Radar is radar. If the target has enough of a cross section it’s going to show up. C-130’s can dump butt loads of chaff and that stuff hangs out there forever. I’ve seen chaff clouds that look huge on the screen.

There isn't enough chaff on a C-130 to begin to create that kind of image on a weather radar or any other type of radar. I have over 5000 hours in the C-130 and am familiar with the chaff and flare capabilities they have. You want enough chaff to confuse a radar-guided missile homing in on you. You don't want so much that you show every radar in an entire enemy country where you are and what direction you're heading.

23 posted on 12/12/2018 9:39:18 AM PST by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: sean327

Right but it wouldn’t give you that color pattern and why would we be using chaff when radar spoofing is all electronic digital stuff? Well I guess it’s to give conspiracy people something to chat about.


24 posted on 12/12/2018 9:45:02 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: AlaskaErik

Would ‘t the radar returns be messed up for quite some distance down range from the chaff? There wouldn’t necessarily be chaff over that wide swath.


25 posted on 12/12/2018 9:54:20 AM PST by gundog ( Hail to the Chief, bitches!)
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To: sean327

Biggest radar mystery since the Michigan State Police
clocked a willow tree doing 108 MPH back in the 80’s.


26 posted on 12/12/2018 10:14:02 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: BenLurkin

“It looks like a giant.....”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpiP_jN1Pv4


27 posted on 12/12/2018 10:15:47 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin
But if this was a case of military chaff,

There was a maintenance supervisor at the plant I used to work in who would purchase old surplus military junk. One day he gave me a metal box with a a spring timer on it that was filled with aluminum chaff.

It sat on the stereo cabinet in my apartment for a long time until one night I had a party.

Somebody picked it up to examine it and inadvertently set it off. The top flew open and that chaff was ejected all over my living room.........LOL!

28 posted on 12/12/2018 10:35:50 AM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: PGR88

“Now its a canyon of hideous, blinking 250 ft. windmills.”

Don’t you hate the instigators?


29 posted on 12/12/2018 10:50:43 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneoOn Monday, an EU court ruled that Britain could reverse its withdrawal unilaterally be)
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To: SkyDancer

I’m an old legacy radar guy, mostly FME type so I’m not very familiar with Doppler radar. But I would think the greens, yellows, and reds are a function of target density that the Doppler computer calculates and then adds the corresponding color. I may be totally off on this, so please correct me if I am.


30 posted on 12/12/2018 11:34:38 AM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: AlaskaErik

Without getting into too much detail, I’m one of the EW OPFOR guys your crews go up against, and I’ve seen massive chaff clouds on my PPI from C-130’s. Enough chaff to kill my picture of the valley we operate from. It can be enough to screw up our MTI.


31 posted on 12/12/2018 11:39:51 AM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: sean327

I don’t know either but that image sure looks like weather to me - that’s the way it looks on the radar we have on the flight deck. In my reading of WW2 spoofing stuff we were dumping long aluminum strips of the frequency the Germans used. We’re into millimeter or higher digital stuff and spoofing is pretty much all electronic now. I have some friends in the service and we chat about stuff and this came up. To me, it still looks like weather, and a target that large would certainly be noticed. Look at the area it covers.


32 posted on 12/12/2018 11:45:05 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: SkyDancer

I haven’t been able to get the link to work so I haven’t seen the picture.


33 posted on 12/12/2018 11:50:18 AM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: sean327
Here it is:

CIA

As you can see, it's way to large to be any sort of aircraft.

34 posted on 12/12/2018 12:09:55 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: SkyDancer

Yeah.... that ain’t chaff.


35 posted on 12/12/2018 12:35:19 PM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: sean327

Conspiracy people need something to keep them going; a reason for existence.


36 posted on 12/12/2018 12:41:10 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: BenLurkin
'Mystery' solved: A West Virginia Air Guard C-130H Was Responsible For Massive Chaff Cloud Over Midwest
The crew released all of the chaff cartridges on board as they returned to base from a training exercise on the West Coast as a safety precaution.

"... as it passed over the Red Hills Military Operations Area (MOA), the crew requested and received permission from air traffic controllers at Indianapolis Center to drop the chaff. MOAs are specially designated pieces of airspace across the United States that U.S. military units can activate in order to conduct training and other activities."

37 posted on 12/12/2018 2:03:29 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: SkyDancer
that and for a bloom that big the whole cargo space would have to be full and traveling faster than a C130 can fly
38 posted on 12/12/2018 4:36:24 PM PST by Chode ( WeÂ’re America, Bitch!)
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To: Chode

You’re causing conspiracy folks to have a meltdown.


39 posted on 12/12/2018 4:39:24 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: BenLurkin

Assuming they’re keeping tabs on those Russian Blackjacks in Venezuela eh ?


40 posted on 12/12/2018 4:39:36 PM PST by redcatcherb412
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