U.S. Balloons Aid Research, Intelligence

 U.S. balloons do exist in reality.

"American military and civilian agencies have flown balloons over the U.S. for a growing range of national security applications, scientific research, intelligence collection and commercial uses, according to industry experts, former officials and government documents.

Less known is the extent to which the U.S. has floated balloons over foreign countries, though there are examples in history. In the 1950s during the Cold War, the U.S. flew balloons outfitted with cameras over Soviet airspace, an operation sometimes referred to as Project Moby Dick.

The White House denied any suggestion from China that U.S. high-altitude balloons had flown into its airspace; a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said Monday U.S. balloons had flown more than 10 times over its airspace since the start of 2022.

The U.S. government still hasn't publicly identified the origin and use of the several craft that Air Force jets shot down over Canada and the Northern U.S.

That and the diplomatic confrontation with China over the alleged spy balloon the U.S. shot down off the South Carolina coast this month are likely to fuel greater interest from government and the private sector in surveillance balloon manufacturing and detection, analysts said.

"We're seeing the exploitation of near space," said retired Gen. John Jumper, who as Air Force chief of staff in the early 2000s led an effort to expand the military use of aerial and space technology.

For decades, the Defense Department has operated static, tethered balloons known as aerostats with radar capability, which float 10,000 to 15,000 feet over drug-smuggling routes at the U.S. southern border and into the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Balloons can carry electro-optical cameras to monitor the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from ultraviolet through far infrared, or radar to detect movement across a vast area of ground, according to government reports.

Balloons have a range of scientific and commercial applications, people in the industry say. In the field of astrobiology, balloons study microorganisms called magnetotactic bacteria that live in the atmosphere and can endure extreme conditions.

World View Enterprises Inc., a Tucson, Ariz., company that says it has launched more than 120 high-altitude balloon missions in the last decade, rigs balloons with cameras to inspect natural-gas and oil pipelines and sensors to sniff the atmosphere for traces of gases. Balloons hover far closer to Earth than satellites' orbits, enabling them to gather higher quality data, said Ryan M. Hartman, president and chief executive officer of World View Enterprises.

Twice a day, meteorologists across the world launch weather balloons to collect information about the atmosphere's temperature, pressure and humidity to feed short-term weather forecasts as well as longer-term seasonal climate predictions. These simple latex balloons carry a device called a radiosonde that weighs a few ounces and transmits the data back to ground stations as they float up to 115,000 feet.

NASA and research agencies from several other Western nations also operate massive research balloons that spend several weeks circling the globe in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 120,000 feet (37 km). These balloons can give vital information about atmospheric conditions and chemistry that drones or high-altitude aircraft can't obtain.

Research balloons can hover over a specific location for a day or more, according to Antonio Busalacchi, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The balloons' appeal lies in the ease with which they can be redeployed with the latest sensor and surveillance technology.

Aerospace analysts anticipate far more interest and investment from the private sector. U.S. companies, including Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Aerostar, have been developing high-altitude balloons for decades for military and commercial users seeking communications and surveillance platforms.

"Now the stratosphere is very clearly a new and contested domain," says Mr. Hartman. "We call it the stratosphere economy."" [1]

1. U.S. News: U.S. Balloons Aid Research, Intelligence
Volz, Dustin; Areddy, James T; Niiler, Eric.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 Feb 2023: A.4.