Posted on 11/10/2010 8:24:09 AM PST by MindBender26
California Contrail Explained - Not Missile
After having about 10 experienced pilots and another 20 of us who are accustomed to watching missile launches from Cape Canaveral review tape, we have most probable answer for the mysterious California contrail. Tape was also reviewed by senior official at NGA.
It is not a missile. It is the contrail of a airliner at altitude moving toward the camera, at an angle of about 30 degrees off center to the right. Retired TRANSPAC airline pilots and USAF types said it was a rather common sight to see as they are climbing out over water on a westerly heading at sunset.
A few clues:
1. This is not as new event. The photographer who took video said in interview that it was very much like others he had seen week earlier.
2. Expanding contrail plume gives illusion that bottom/rear of plume is closer to observer than the top/newest part of plume, that which is near the aircraft. It is an illusion.
3. The light emanating from the object that looks like rocket flame is a reflection of the sun off the aluminum bottom of the a/c fuselage. The clues that it is not a rocket flame are that it is not hidden by contrail, and more importantly, is the same color temperature as the sun's other reflections.
4. There were no alarms from the DSP satellites. They detect heat from rocket launches from geostationary orbit. They are very good, so good in fact that when Sovs had a fire in an ICBM silo a few years ago, it was reported at NORAD immediately.
5. No radar, and there are numerous ATC and air defense radars in that area, had any track, primary or transponder, of any object on a course as speculated.
All in all, a false alarm. A very interesting one, but a false alarm.
Not the first false alarm, either. In the 60s, we went to DEFCON 2 based on DEW and PineTree line radar returns indicating Sov bombers inbound over Greenland. Was really delayed radar echoes off the rising moon.
All contrails where you have an unobstructed view to the horizon appear to be "launching" from the surface. The arc is created because the aircraft is flying at a constant altitude above a round object. That the contrail is much smaller closer to us (because it has not disipated any) make it appear to be going away from us when in fact it is coming toward us; relatively west to east in this case. A double "horizon effect" if you will. Such is life on a round rock hurtling through space..
If this was just a normal phenomenon that could be explained by an airliner known to be in the area at the time, the statements of befuddlement make no sense. The first things a person would check would be whether there were any tests run then or whether there were any planes in the area. You wouldn’t act baffled unless what you found out about those 2 things ruled out those obvious explanations.
So once again it’s a deal where we have to second-guess whether the government is stupid, or just lying. And if they’re lying, why are they lying? Every stinkin’ thing that comes up ends up with those questions. It’s worse than trying to figure out a teeny-bopper soap opera. Disgusting that our government has even less credibility than the “National Enquirer”.
Well, I’ll answer that.
The boys at NORAD are poised to track missiles and incoming bombers. If something is inbound into our airspace they’ll ask the FAA if it’s something they’re responsible for, and if not, they’ll scramble fighters. They SEE but DO NOT track commercial flights, that’s the FAA’s job, but if something appears amiss, FAA will share that with NORAD, who will scramble fighters to take a look.
The “missile” plume was just an optical illusion. What plane was it? Well, it could have been miles away from the spot those who thought it was a missile would be. So if a ballistic missile was fired from the ocean 35 miles off the coast, on first stage burn it would be at X spot altitude and long/latitude given speed and time from liftoff. This is called rocket science. But, NORAD didn’t see that, because it wasn’t a missile.
When asked about it the next morning, they’re like, WTF? We didn’t see ANYTHING like a missile! We’d be on high alert or dead if that was the case! I think at first, with the absense of any abnormal data they saw the film and couldn’t just say it wasn’t something, but other experts on contrails finally got heard (within only a few hours) and solved the mystery.
If you look at the initial thread yesterday, I was very upset thinking that we’d let one thru without detection, or my Air Force was lying! I was shocked, frankly. I know how the system works and honestly a missile couldn’t be fired from there without setting us to DEFCON 5, ie, TSHTF!!! But the thing that turned me around was all the photos and videos of previous aircraft contrails at sunset off the California coast that look exactly like this video tape. These photos started to appear within hours yesterday.
So everyone, get a grip. Airmen do not want to see their loved ones die in a thermonuclear explosion! They’d do their jobs with a vengence IF this was a missile. We should be alert, but smart enough to consider further evidence when or if it comes out.
Do either China or Russia have the ability to jam our detection devices? Is our detection dependent on satellite technology? Thanks to former Secretary of Defense William Perry, China has been making big strides in satellite technology, I believe with an eye out to be able to jam our satellite capabilities.
Anybody know if something like that could explain why this - if it is a missile - evaded detection?
I just tried that, checked several, but can’t find any mention of an MIT professor saying he saw the “rocket” drop its first stage. I’m trying to find out who the MIT professor is, so if you can remember where you saw or read about him, I’d appreciate it. Otherwise, no worries.
Absolutely not, as there are a wide variety of technologies being used. We track with infrared detecting sattelites, low band radar, microwave radar, phased array radar, radio detection, FAA radar, USAF radar, US Navy radar, USMC radar, telescope, and other means I can’t (at least in 1998) talk about.
It was on the news break from Rush on the Boston station. If I dig it up will post.
Of interest on this subject:
The earth is round. A plane coming towards the California coast from Hawaii would appear to emerge from the sea as it rounded the earth. Because the plane is much higher and more westerly, it would reflect the light of the red setting sun, while viewers on the ground would be in relative darkness.
Seems to me like they’re acting as if they expect something big to happen.
But nothing, in fact, happened. Was this missile a dud? Where did it hit?
Seems to me like they’re acting as if they expect something big to happen.
But nothing, in fact, happened. Was this missile a dud? Where did it hit?
Except, as I understood it, the object wasn’t travelling west to east, it was moving away from the California coast.
Is there any vulnerability with computers being hacked? We know the Chinese have hacked our DOD computers.
Obviously, don’t say anything that would be bad for national security. I’m a moron on technology (as I’m sure you’ve surmised already. lol) and a military friend of mine has assured me that the military doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket just because they want to reduce the vulnerability. But when I think about the use of decoys and jamming, the stuff that goes along with the space wars mentality, and I think about EMP attacks, etc it makes me wonder if something that jammed our computers (like hacking, or an EMP attack) used at the same time as something that jammed our satellites could exploit a vulnerability.
I would hope there would be ways of knowing if such a thing happened.
I don’t know what this was and don’t even really have the knowledge to figure out what it was. Ultimately it comes down to what sources you trust and at this point I find it hard to trust anybody. That’s my honest 2-cents on this.
Does anybody know what happened when those other contrails were created in the Pacific sunset looking just like this? Were there people suspecting that it was a missile? Was the military saying they didn’t know what it was but it wasn’t a missile? Were NORAD and the FAA involved in figuring out those cases? Somebody said they were mad that the press is making this out to be something. If there have been instances just like this that panned out differently, I wonder what made the difference in the way this panned out.
It was last week’s viral news-video clip.
Mysterious ‘Time Traveler’ Spotted in Charlie Chaplin Film
Foxnews
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2615864/posts
HOLLYWOOD — 33 years after his death, a 1928 film clip from a Charlie Chaplin movie premier that appears to show a woman talking on a cell phone is sparking debate and controversy.
Why do you think Obama took everything necessary for a government-in-exile when he went to India? Does that seem usual to you? Do you know if that’s normal and we just didn’t know anything about it before now?
That is the optical illusion part of the incident. The contrail from the plane is expanding over time, so the farther away the plume is, the larger it is.
Our minds are accustomed to the idea that bigger means closer and smaller means farther away. This makes people interpret the plume as moving away from them when it is actually moving towards them.
What will be suspicious is NOT coming out with the ID of the airliner in question. It should be too simple to figure it out.
However, it doesn’t help explain everybody’s prior statements that nothing at all was in the area.
The most important report comes from the helicopter pilot. He's pretty clear in what he saw and what actually happened. He didn't see any plane, but a massive object hurtling through space away from the earth into the atmosphere, emitting a huge, spiral plume.
And check out the first comment here...
"I find it interesting that no one “claims” to know about this. Yesterday we were returning from Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines with an arrival time of 3:25 pm at LAX. Approximately 270 miles away our pilot came on the speaker and told us we would be rerouted over Big Sur California due to military maneuvers in our path. Maybe they should speak with the pilot of our flight."
If that's true, it could be corroborated by other passengers. Maybe it was some new, secret missile defense system being tested. ?
Perhaps you can explain how the bottom of the plume is lit from the east side when the sun is on the west side?
brightly lit from the east side?
The Good Lord knows that there are unanswered questions here.
It is too easy to give the details of the planes in the area at that time.
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