Free Republic

National Weather Service meteorologists will be sending weather balloons up into the sky four times a day, instead of the normal twice-a-day launches, to help forecasters gain better insight into Hurricane Irma's likely course. ... After the weather instruments were calibrated, the radiosonde was brought outside to the launch shed. ... "It does seem like old technology. I'm sure there are going to be better methods of sampling upper air data, but right now measuring it with the instrument going through the parcel of air is the best we have," Kern said. The reason for the extra launches came down...

PHOENIX -- A mysterious UFO-like sighting that created a stir in Arizona and New Mexico has been identified. NASA officials say the flying orb spotted Monday was a giant research balloon, not an alien spacecraft. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says people were calling him about the object all afternoon. Bill Stepp of NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, says the flying object was a 4,000-pound NASA research balloon used to measure gamma ray emissions. The balloon usually floats at 130,000 feet and can be seen for about 170 miles on a clear day. One witness said...

<p>President Bush should insist his commission investigating the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies answer this question: What did we know about Saddam's weather balloon program, and when did we know it?</p> <p>This is not a facetious suggestion.</p> <p>Mr. Bush's decision to name a commission came after the highly respected David Kay -- who resigned as director of the Iraq Survey Group, saying he didn't believe Iraq had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction -- told the Senate Armed Services Committee an outside investigation was needed.</p>

ASHINGTON, Aug. 8 — Engineering experts from the Defense Intelligence Agency have come to believe that the most likely use for two mysterious trailers found in Iraq was to produce hydrogen for weather balloons rather than to make biological weapons, government officials say. The classified findings by a majority of the engineering experts differ from the view put forward in a white paper made public on May 28 by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which said that the trailers were for making biological weapons. That report had dismissed as a "cover story" claims by senior Iraqi scientists that...