Possible Rachel UFOs: Lighted Weather Balloons

From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas)
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 20:50:42 -0800
Subject: Possible Rachel UFOs: Lighted Weather Balloons


I talked to a former Nevada Test Site worker today.

He says that a lot of weather balloons were released prior to each
bomb test at the Test Site.  Balloons, which are called "pi-balls",
were released every hour starting two days before any test, and
Rachel was one of the areas where balloons were released.  The
balloons were tracked visually for an actual measure of upper-air
winds.  (Since the balloon ascends at a known rate, all you need
to measure is the compass direction and angle of elevation.)

During the day, the 2-meter balloons were easy to track just by
sighting on the balloon itself, but at night you could not see them,
so two lights were hung from the bottom.  (There were two lights,
not one, because of the worry that one of them might burn out.)

These lighted balloons made great UFOs, my source said, especially
because the two lights often seemed to dance around each other.
He himself was fooled by one once, until he found a DOE truck
parked in the desert and he reported his "UFO" sighting to them.
They had a good laugh at his expense.

My source says that for various purposes, balloons were also
occasionally released in groups of three, and then the "average"
of their position was used to gauge the movement of the air
mass.

The actual state of upper-air winds was of crucial importance
in case there was any venting from the atomic tests (which were
conducted underground in later years).  The optimal path of
the desired winds was directly over Rachel, because that was
the least populated direction.

The last atomic test was in 1992, but balloons were also released
for non-nuclear chemical release tests, which continue to be
conducted today.  (These tests involve the release of a convention
toxic gas, like hydrocloride acid, to develop techniques for
handling commercial spills.)  It isn't clear weather they are
still releasing lighted balloons for current chemical tests.

Just another animal to add to our aerial phenomena "zoo."

Glenn

+---------------------------------------------------------+
|    GLENN CAMPBELL - Government Disinformation Agent     |
|             "Who does he really work for?"              |
|                                                         |
| Area 51 Research Center            campbell@ufomind.com |
| Las Vegas Annex                  http://www.ufomind.com |
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