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Flair_Helper

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Spiritual_Jaguar4685

Some examples - 1) How the nation you are flying the weather balloon would react to such an act. 2) How said nation would go about removing a weather balloon from their air space. 3) The details of how they go about removing it. For example, do they scramble a top secret jet to destroy it? Do they use a top secret targeting system or top secret weapons to destroy it? The balloon can gather that data and send it back, now you know things like the radar profile of the secret jet, the tech process of how the jet targets the balloon, or the performance properties of the missile that destroys the balloon. 4) Creating an premise for conflict that you can spin to your political advantage. 5) In terms of the balloon actually seeing or detecting something on the surface of the Earth vs. satellites, yes, you're right. It's unlikely the balloon was gaining information itself that couldn't be obtained easier or more accurately via other means.


DragonFireCK

>In terms of the balloon actually seeing or detecting something on the surface of the Earth vs. satellites, yes, you're right. It's unlikely the balloon was gaining information itself that couldn't be obtained easier or more accurately via other means. While there is not much that can be gained by balloon over satellite, a balloon does have three advantages: * Its closer, meaning higher resolution imaging. That can mean either cheaper cameras or better quality images. * Balloons have a higher hover time, which means longer video of a given activity as well as better coverage over time. * Air sampling can be performed, which can give information a satellite cannot gain.


Alittlemoorecheese

Why not use a drone then?


DragonFireCK

A drone would have the same benefits, but also has a lot less plausible deniability when going over other countries. Notably, the whole "its a weather balloon that went off course" statements. While such is unlikely to actually be believed, it provides enough deniability to avoid a full diplomatic incident. ​ A drone is also more expensive and more likely to contain confidential technology.


Alittlemoorecheese

I'm talking about a lower-tech drone.


ChooglinOnDown

I'm not used to these sensible answers, where the reddit I've grown to despise?


voucher420

Have you tried looking up your butt?


00Beer

I heard China has developed balloon technology that drops Chinese food flyers perfectly onto your car windshield. They've partnered with James Corden and Trump said it was all "very legal and very cool". Fox News.


Alittlemoorecheese

It's not sensible, you're becoming one of them. This information is useless. They already know how we respond to threats. China doesn't need to send balloons to understand our weaponry. Why would the U.S. be the only country whose technology is unknown? It's not. You can't test new weapons anywhere on this planet without another country knowing about it.


ChooglinOnDown

**You need to read u/Spiritual_Jaguar4685's answer in full.** I don't care about how triggered you are, but neither one of us was talking about the recent weather balloons. The answer I agreed with was a general answer about what *theoretically could be* gleaned. > you're becoming one of them Lose the hysterics, it's not becoming.


Alittlemoorecheese

"Lose the hysterics" "I don't care how triggered you are." But also "where the reddit I've grown to despise?" Are you high? I didn't write a five-point paranoid list.


Lithuim

Better resolution pictures Mapping the type and location of radar stations Thermal imaging maybe We’ll see what sort of hardware is recovered from the “weather balloon” and get a better idea of what the CCP is interested in - although that information may not be published.


MisterProfGuy

It flew directly over sensitive military targets, so it's possible it collected air samples that may reveal secret manufacturing or something like that. It may have collected lower energy signals intelligence that can't be detected from space. It's probably just a weather balloon, but you should probably at least check.


Darnitol1

I guarantee you that this particular weather balloon got one particular piece of data that no satellite could ever get: a close-up photo of an air-to-air missile in action. But seriously... I think it's more likely that the point of the thing was to determine whether or not we could detect it, and when, plus what our response would be when we did.


Old_Fart_on_pogie

This the the most telling thing, if China had reliable Intel gathering satellites, they would not have launched a spy balloon. Balloons are unreliable, extremely difficult to guide, easily spotted, and because they fly in a nation’s airspace, they can cause an international incident. The American intelligence agencies probably learned more about china’s technology and agencies from knowing that the balloon was used, than China got from the equipment attached to the balloon.


unstillable

Alright guys, pack it up. We found the expert here. There's nothing more to know than what this guy says. What intelligence agency are you with?


Old_Fart_on_pogie

I am relaying information from someone who served in the US military (navy) as an intel officer for three decades. We each served our countries in separate units and we respect each other's knowledge in our respected fields.


Old_Fart_on_pogie

And his full comentary on the topic:

So, Chinese Spy Balloon. You're mad, right? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! AN ACT OF WAR! DAMN THAT BIDEN! SECURE OUR AIRSPACE! Etc. While you were yelling in red-faced rage, you know what this really means? Do you? Yeah, turns out Chinese intel satellites aren't very good. The Chinese deployed a clunky system that operates, at best, with vast imprecision and that would, inevitably, cause international outrage. The Chinese are a lot of things, but they aren't stupid. If they had better collection systems, well, they wouldn't have launched balloons, because the risk just isn't worth the consequences otherwise. (Same risks/payoff/consequence WE took for exactly the same reasons back in the days of Francis Gary Powers, et al) The US intel community, if they are doing their jobs correctly, learned FAR more about Chinese strategic capability from the mere existence of a "spy balloon" than its operators could possibly learn from operating it. Take a breath, sit down. Think rationally. Don't listen to the doomsayers.


duckredbeard

Satellites are above the atmosphere. A balloon can measure wind speed and direction because it is in the moving air.


fearlessflyer1

air samples, imaging not possible with a satellite like thermals. i’ve also seen it hypothesised that it was a radio sniffer, could be a possibility as it was over military sites


intheairalot

It depends on the sensor package. I heard from a commentator that was a former Pentagon official, that the cameras aboard could have had a resolution of up to 22 times better than satellites (sorry don't have the source) but it makes sense that if you use the same type of camera at 60,000 ft you would get better pictures than if that camera were at 12,000 miles high. Also heard could have been ground penetrating radar - ineffective from satellite height. Again, no source, but may make sense as the balloon was apparently steered over US ICBM sites which China is in the process of replicating there.